A boy slurps his berry Popsicle as a stranger licks his lips.
Gazing at a sticky grin, an old man tightens grip.
He’s gripping onto morals that chime his mind is wrong.
He bows his face in plain disgrace for spurring red lips on.
A sin of thoughts, mind the court. Jury solely lead.
No action taken, no life forsaken. The crime is in his head.
A pervert in the closet, a predator debating. .
Do we sentence him to prison for a crime that lay’s in waiting?
Do we open hearts to illness, treating man’s affliction?
Provide a place that won’t disgrace to heal with no conviction?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Rehabilitation or incarceration?
This poem is not written to cast judgment or condemn. I am sorry if my words are offensive to anyones personal experiences.
This was written after observing a stranger on a park bench.
Love heals above all…
Mind to Unbind 
wowww….! Thought police? It’s the stuff of Sci-Fi movies. Even if you DID decide to either incarcerate, or rehabilitate, how could you ever prove a thought crime?
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Yep, yet society condemns the person through hate, alienation and verbal and/or physical scorn. A man with thoughts is just a man with thoughts. A man hated for his thoughts becomes a monster. Who’s to blame for his transformation?
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1 in 100 people are in prisons in the USA (the land of the free) Its a good business and the elites have an interest in a chaotic class that destabalises the evolution of stronger communities, many sex offenders, drug addicts, theifs etc are created by soiciety and were never born that way. 1 in 3 children in America are born into poverty in the richest country on earth. It’s like bugs life with the locusts, twisting the other insects sense of worth!
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Well put, I’m in complete agreement. Thank you for leaving such a powerful comment
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Thanks, for the inspiration, just spun it into a quick poem.
1 in 100 people in prisons
In the land of the free
A good business for elites
That thrive from disharmony
Create a chaotic class
Stop communities growing stronger
A war on peace & progress
Split divide & bloody conquer
1 in 3 in USA born to poverty
The richest country milking earth
Where the locusts farm the bugs
As they degrade your sense of worth
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I am so chuffed that you became inspired after reading my post and reaching out with a comment. Your work is brimming with class superiority feeding off those who have no morsels to give. My favorite lines are “the richest country milking earth. Where the locust farm the bugs.” Beautifully powerful. Poetry is the art of change. Thank you for creating on my canvas.
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Such an interesting thought! As someone who has for sure had thoughts of “I could steal that” or “I’d like to push her down the stairs,” yet never followed through – I am thankful for the opportunity to recant my thoughts. But I’m also a Christian and I believe God is concerned about our thoughts, and His concern (which sometimes looks like punishment) leads to rehabilitation. So in answer to your question, I think thoughts should be treated with what you call therapy, and actions should be punished in such a way that also leads to rehabilitation. If that’s even possible.
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Rehabilitation is key to avoiding incarceration. If we alienate crimes of thought, we shun a person for something they often can’t control. I support rehabilitation for crime of action. We have a chance to show offenders that we will not give up on them. Only then can they begin to feel worthy of an honest living. Thank you for your beautiful comment, and deep reflection.
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we can’t go down the path of making thoughts, regardless of what they are, an illegal action. Putting aside the problems of “proving beyond a reasonable doubt” that such thoughts exist, it is even more of a unlikelihood that a prosecutor could prove he or she would act on those thoughts. Now if such a person actually spoke to a child about his “sck” desirous intent that would be another matter, but even just verbalizing it to a potential victim would or should be a crime at some level.
In the end, it is our illegal actions – whether it be murder or abuse, physical action or verbal action – that allows our legal system to intervene. That is why is possible to pick up and incarcerate people who only speak conspiratorially to others or beginning preparing for an illegal action.
Here is the slippery slope: some could argue for you to write this post and putting yourself into the mind of such a person, you had have at some moment the similar vile thoughts as the victimizer. Should law enforcement haul you in for questioning, just to be sure you were not actually sympathetic to such notions or even in agreement with him?
I think not.
One last example: a spouse comes home to discover their partner having sex with another. The spouse’s initial emotional reaction is to kill them before. Should this spouse be arrested for potential murder, or is okay if this thought is allowed to swim around the consciousness before fading into oblivion, more reasonable (and legal) courses of action take over.
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Unfortunate we have to wait for a crime to actually happen. In some cases, law enforcement may have the resources to place the person on surveillance (but for enforcement agencies have that kind of resources to keep an eye on all the known predators, let alone potential predators.
Rehabilitation as a form of redemption and incarceration as form of sentence tend to be fully entwined with most people convicted of a crime. A key question is how much effort (and expenditure of limited resources) should be placed into rehabilitation. Some (like the true sociopath) are immune or extremely immune to rehabilitation efforts and prison mental health professionals should have the right to claim certain inmates as resistant to rehab or non-impacted by rehab efforts.
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