The Moral Psychology of Forgiveness by Kathryn J. Norlock

Author:Kathryn J. Norlock [Norlock, Kathryn J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield International
Published: 2017-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

Excessive Punitiveness and Prospects for Forgiveness

Given that criminal sanction in the United States is often excessively harsh, that conditions in many prisons are inhumane, and that former prisoners often face lifelong disenfranchisement and disqualifications of many kinds, it might seem that there are numerous, significant opportunities for forgiveness to have a salutary moral role. There is much regarding current criminal justice in the United States (and also the United Kingdom) that reflects strongly punitive attitudes on the part of the public and unconcern about the ways in which offenders are harmed by the sanctions imposed on them.

Among the relevant factors are the following. As Joan Petersilia says,

The average inmate coming home will have served a longer prison sentence than in the past, be more disconnected from family and friends, have a higher prevalence of substance abuse and mental illness, and be less educated and less employable than those in prior prison release cohorts. Each of these factors is known to predict recidivism, yet few of these needs are addressed while the inmate is in prison or on parole.32

Further, as Craig Haney observes,

More recent [than the 1980s] estimates suggest that over 20% of prisoners are coerced into some form of sexual conduct while incarcerated. In a mid-1990s study, researchers reported that about 22% of male prisoners had been victimized in this way (including 13% for whom the coerced sexual activity involved intercourse) and that, once having been victimized, prisoners were targeted for an average of nine nonconsensual incidents of sexual contact.33

In general, overcrowding, brutalization, long periods of solitary confinement for many prisoners, severe limits on opportunities for deliberation or making decisions, very restrictive rules regarding interaction with persons outside prison, and various combinations of these and other features of carceral practice lead many prisoners to despair. This is not just a mood of discouragement; it is a matter of ceasing to think of oneself as an agent, purposefully self-determining, in a world with other agents.

Many prisoners are affected in ways that are lasting, and not just a matter of making adjustments to the prison environment that are left behind upon release. The prison experience worsens many prisoners. It is not just that many become more skilled, more knowledgeable criminals. Perhaps the chief point is that prison is so often corrupting, demoralizing, and erodes the agential capacities of offenders. Many emerge from the experience with far fewer of the habits and attitudes needed for participating in civil society successfully.

Though there is much wrong with current carceral practice, there is, I have suggested, a morally proper role for resentment and even for punitiveness. There are respects in which they can, when measured by sound judgment, support a concern to see that justice is done, and they are not merely or always harmful. To be sure, there are serious deficiencies of civility in numerous respects, with the result that the civility of society is diminished. The fact that so many people believe that offenders should be made miserable and that they should be excluded

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