You know, I read the story about retraining the criminal mind with a mixed sense of amusement and respect. I knew a kid who got in a lot of trouble growing up. He'd racked up his 5th DWI by 1997, and he got some pen time (second trip). On parole, in his mid 30's, he was required to attend classes designed to do the same thing. He was talking to me, one day on the phone, after one of the classes. He said, very seriously, "you know, Beck, the way you treat a person in a conversation gets a certain reaction. If you get mad, so do they." He was quite astounded by this revelation.

Maybe every first time offender should take the cognitive intervention classes. I don't know if it would have helped my friend, or it was his advancing years that helped him. He has not been in trouble since, and before this class, he couldn't make it 6 mos without trouble.

I am working on a double-homicide capital. The co-ds are 24 and 17. At the time of the offense, they had known one another for less than 90 days. The elder grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and came to Texas a fugitive in October 2003; the younger split time between his father's house in suburban Atlanta and his mother's place here in Tarrant County. Both began to exhibit significant behavioral problems about age ten. From sexual abuse of siblings to firestarting to a fascination with guns and the dope-slinging gansta culture, their lives are an eerie, parallel, downward spiral.

They met in early December 2003 and committed their crime in mid-January '04. State agencies such as special schools, CPS, MHMR, juvenile probation as well as non-profit counseling and mentoring groups offered them and their families "services" from the age of nine or ten but the dysfunction continued apace.

Conservatively, I estimate that these two soaked up tens of thousands of dollars of funding and kept the new social work clergy busy and employed. Nevertheless, some minds are impervious to change. Why? Because Light came into the world, but men loved darkness rather than Light because their deeds were evil. If I can strike a capital jury who are convinced that evil is real and who reject the idea that the right formula of midnight basketball and therapy can cure what ails folks like these I'll be at peace with whatever verdict they return.

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 11-30-04 at .]

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 11-30-04 at .]

[This message was edited by BLeonard on 11-30-04 at .]

someone must have a better cass of criminal than I do. Cognative implies that they have some ability to think. Most of mine lack that capablity.

You probably don't have a chance. Obviously, these defendants were not responsible for their actions. Chances are they are mentally retarded, were abandoned at birth or subjected to unimaginable child abuse, were either substance or alcohol dependent (that's a mental health disorder you know); or were deprived of appropriate therapy and treatment for any number of other mental illnesses such as depression, psychosis, etc., etc., etc..
Surely, they couldn't be sociopaths--I had a defense psychologist in a capital trial tell me that antisocial personality disorder should not even be a legitimate mental health diagnosis. So, there's not even a remote possibility that the actions of these defendants could have been the product of THEIR OWN FREE WILL. And by the way, how could they be a future danger to society if they're locked up for 40 CALENDER YEARS, DAY FOR DAY AND NIGHT FOR NIGHT? Statistics show that it's safer to live in prison than it is in the free world---right, A.P.??????

Wow, I wasn't meaning to say we could fix the sociopaths. I just meant trying to work with the first time offenders, and let me qualify this, of the lower level of crimes, before they advance. I'm not advocating touchy-feely punishment either, those who know me know how I feel about that. I just meant that it could be an additional resource to go along with the punishment scheme, just like the myth that a fine will help punish someone.

When I worked in Ft. Bend Co. (which seemed to have a probation program for just about every flavor of crook)I noticed that a lot of problems crooks had--especially at the County Court level--came from the crooks lack of good manners. They'd bark at someone, or call someone that mildly annoyed them a bad name, and next thing you know: it's fist city.

So I suggested they have a "Good Manners Class" for these people. I figured a recently retired drill instructor would be the perfect teacher. The students would be required to address their teacher as "yes! (or no) Sgt. Major.!" or "Yes sir!" They'd be instructed in the finer points of good manners: holding doors open for women, and those carrying packages; not using foul language; waiting until everyone is served until starting to eat; when and how to shake another's hand; the whole bit.

But my idea went no where.

Still, I require my probationers to take every class that might possibly benefit them: Safe Driving Classes; Anger Mgt. Classes; NRA Firearm Saftey Classes; Drug & Alc. Classes, etc. I figure: You just can't get too much education.

Sorry, Beck, I wasn't aiming at you; your post just provided a taking off place for a little rant on choices and sociopathy. There is something missing in a small percentage of these violent defendants and that something cannot be implanted. It's either there or it ain't. If it is there, I'm all for encouraging growth in the empathy deficiency. If it is not there, the least we can do is quarantine the threat from the population.

I'm probably a throwback, but I really have no confidence or belief in "rehabilitation," counseling remedies, etc., etc, ad nauseum. While all of these remedies to try to understand bad behavior and hopefully remedy future conduct may look good on paper and perhaps make someone satisfied that a criminal problem is being adequately addressed by treating the criminal, my experience as both a defense guy and a prosecutor tells me otherwise. Absent being truly (with emphasis on the "truly") insane, crime results from individual, conscious choices. If you get caught, then you play the game--take the counseling, etc.--until the next criminal opportunity presents itself. In all my time as a lawyer, I can recall only one defendant who was truly remorseful over committing the crime (for religious reasons, he insisted on the crime being reported even though there were no witnesses or knowledge of the crime, then got 16 to do); all the rest were remorseful only for getting caught. Again. I'm a throwback and don't buy into all the headrubbing and other pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo. It just makes administering criminal justice that much more expensive. a swift and sure penalty goes a great deal further in curbing criminal appetites.