Authors, German -- 19th century -- Biography; May, Karl Friedrich, 1842-1912
For the act of the individual, the society as a whole is also
to blame. For its own sake, it has to take a part of the guilt
from him and unto itself.
The German judges are very well aware of this truth. I have not
met a single judge, even among those who had decided against me,
whom I could accuse of any wrongdoing. The numerous lawsuits, my
opponents virtually force me to conduct, give me ample
opportunities to make such experiences, and I have to say that I
have nothing but the utmost respect for all of these gentlemen,
both in the criminal and the civil courts. I have even
experienced one case where a judge in Dresden decided in my
favour, though all of his relatives and acquaintances were against
me and sought to influence him in that respect. What satisfaction
and what confidence in all judges this can give, knows only he who
has experienced something like I did.
In respect to the penal system, I have express the same thing.
During my entire imprisonment, I have not met a single
high-ranking official or guard, who had given me cause for any
complaint in respect to his fairness and humane treatment of the
prisoners. I would even say that the guards feel the harshness of
their duties much more than the prisoners. Hundreds of times, I
have admired a kindness, a patience and forbearance, which I would
not have been capable of. Prison is no concert-hall and no
dance-hall, but a very, very serious place, where a person has to
discover who he is. The detainee who is wise enough to realize
this will never find any cause for complaint, but only all
conceivable help, to erase the memory of what he had been accused
of. There were officials who became so very dear to me, and I am
completely convinced that they not just pretended to return my
kindness, but were perfectly honest about it.
With the achievements of our justice and penal system nonetheless
not being as we would wish them to be, it are truly not the judges
and also not the prison officials who are to blame for this;
instead the cause is to be sought in an entirely different place:
in a flawed legislation, in the foolish self-righteousness of
one's dear neighbour, in certain, too deeply rooted forms of
prejudice, and last but not least also in our so-called, highly
praised "criminal psychology", in which only certain experts
believe, but not those who really know human nature and even much
less those, all this is in the end about, these are the so-called
- - - criminals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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