Friday, October 15, 2004

Dress Codes

Posted by Tim at 12:59 PM
Russel Chmieleski of Pennsylvania is in some seriously deep trouble. It turns out that he wasn't permitted to attend his high-school graduation ceremony, and rather than wearing a cap and gown, he chose to show up in somewhat less formal attire: his birthday suit.

The streaking Chmieleski was apprehended and charged with a number of crimes, which were bargained down to a guilty plea for indecent exposure - a first degree charge, since there were observers under 16 years old present. Chmieleski is now facing up to 2 years jail time for his indiscretion.

Is this truly an example of proportionality between the crime and the punishment? I think not. Not only is this sort of response overly prudish (especially since it was not exposure in a prurient context), but dangerous - prison crowding is a serious issue, and imprisoning fools compounds this unnecessarily. Further, more serious crimes often receive lighter punishments than the potential one facing Russel.

Let's hope that cooler heads prevail in this case, and that retributive justice takes a back seat to genuine community interests.

1 comment:

Tim said...

Thanks for informing us, Chris! I'm definitely a proponent of restitutive justice, and locking everyone in jail that looks at a politician cross-eyed isn't going to do anyone a whit of good. There's room for disagreement about some issues, but I think that no matter how we treat criminals in other circumstances, restritution should be the primary goal of the justice department.

10/16/2004 12:58 PM

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