I am more and more disheartened and disgusted by the justice system. A woman has allegedly been caught leaving two very young babies at home alone. Another person was allegedly caught with a large amount of drugs and a weapon. Can you guess which crime carries more felonies and prison time? Not the one where the children could very well have died.
Upon digging into this matter more, I see more and more cases where child abuse and neglect and domestic violence are treated as minor offenses. Especially in comparison to drug crimes. I am not insinuating that drug crimes should go unpunished or not investigated. But the stark reality is our justice system and government is not protecting people, especially innocent children.
So many people arrested for child offenses that spend little, if any prison time. To make matters worse, they are often times handed their children right back after getting out of prison. Where is the justice for the children? Why are unfit parents allowed to have all of these "improvement periods" given by the courts when they obviously should not be caring for children? Why is it investigating and prosecuting drug offenders is so much more important and the crimes made out to be more heinous that child abuse, neglect, etc.?
Crimes against a person are far more heinous and should be punished as such. I would much rather my tax dollars be spent for putting neglectful mother or father in prison, or someone who beat their spouse than someone who had a fistful of marijuana. We need to stand up and fight this injustice and make things right. Victims are falling through the cracks and criminals left unpunished. Don't just sit there, I encourage you to write your representatives and vote and do anything you can to help make the change necessary to fix our justice system.
Diana Slusher
Vienna
