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The True Pursuit of Justice
Rebecca Katz

Many principles found in this week’s parsha, Shoftim, form a key part of the ethical Jewish tradition. Shoftim outlines several commandments regarding the establishment of a system of justice in the land of Israel. Perhaps one the most famous and oft-cited biblical phrases is part of Shoftim: “tzedek, tzedek tirdof,” “justice, justice, shall you pursue.”

Most striking about this parsha is the way in which it makes clear that the means by which we pursue justice are as important as the end itself.   For example, we learn in this parsha that a person may only be convicted of a capital offense based on the testimony of two witnesses.  It is clear that the achievement of a just world must be pursued through proper methods.

So how does the Torah’s vision of a just society compare with the American justice system? The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Nearly 2.5 million people, or 3.2% of all adults, were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails in 2008.  Of course, a prison sentence can serve multiple purposes; it can impose punishment and serve as a deterrent. Ultimately, though, the goal is to make society safer, by incarcerating individuals who pose a threat to the public. Yet statistics tell an interesting story: within three years of release, 67% of former prisoners are rearrested and 52% are re-incarcerated. Are we more eager to lock people up than to make our society safer in the long term?  Are we, as Shoftim reminds us, pursuing justice through just means? 

Overcrowding, violence, and poor medical and mental health care plague America’s 5,000 prisons and jails. Given the dramatic rise in incarceration over the past decade especially, public safety is threatened when the corrections system focuses disproportionately on punishment and does little “correcting” of the individual’s behavior. Can we instead look for ways to rehabilitate some prisoners and help them become positively contributing members of our society? Programs already in place across the country suggest the answer is “yes.”

In Virginia, the Detention Center Incarceration Program aims to safely divert nonviolent offenders and probation violators from long-term incarceration to shorter-term incarceration coupled with community supervision and guidance. The program includes substance-abuse education and treatment, transitional services and follow-up by probation and parole field staff outside of the detention center. Based on a one year study of nearly 300 inmates, only 3% of the offenders who successfully completed the program had been reconvicted for new offenses.

Similarly, the Utah Day Reporting Center offers probationers and parolees educational opportunities, development of employable skills, substance abuse treatment, intensive mental health therapy and a daily structure. Two-thirds of offenders remain free of criminal charges for at least one year subsequent to receiving DRC services.

These programs are not for every offender.  Some convicts have committed truly heinous crimes and continue to pose ongoing threats to public safety. They must remain behind bars.  But for many, the Virginia and Utah programs (and others like them) demonstrate that there are safe alternatives to long-term incarceration.  These alternatives reduce individuals’ likelihood to commit new crimes, ease inmates’ transition back into society and prepare them for successful post-prison life.

Our country’s pursuit of justice is a journey. Our criminal justice system must shift from its over-reliance on punitive incarceration; instead, we should redirect resources to focus on preventing crime, aim to reduce recidivism and encourage ex-offenders’ successful reentry into communities. A more integrative approach to justice, rather than a focus on building more jails, promotes the advancement of public safety by decreasing the likelihood that a person will engage in risky or criminal behavior. We can foster public safety, while also respecting human and civil rights and promoting responsible citizenship.

Certainly, justice can be difficult to achieve.  These challenges are not easy to address or even talk about. Time and again, calls to reassess our criminal justice system are frowned upon as being “soft” on crime. But, in a country that has (proportionately) the world’s largest prison population, an assessment of our methods of pursuing justice are a necessity. Our nation’s paradigm must shift: as Sefat Emet, Chassidic leader and Talmudist wrote, “we have to keep pursuing justice, knowing that we have not yet attained it.” The prison system is not the end of the pursuit of justice, and we cannot treat it as such. Justice, we shall indeed pursue.

Rebecca Katz is a legislative assistant at the Religious Action Center, finishing up her year at the RAC and moving on to work at the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project this fall. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2009, and is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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