‘Ultimate punishment’ may help society

Having spent nearly 33 years of my life as a newspaper reporter and editor in various communities, I’ve seen firsthand many things others in today’s society never face.

On one hand, I saw positive instances in which people took time to help one another. This included one in which a brother helped save his older sister’s life as she battled a rare but potentially fatal medical condition most of her life.

However, other moments as a news reporter forced me to deal with horrible, tragic times that tore people’s lives apart. Among them were instances where others in our community made terrible decisions that led to others getting seriously hurt or killed.

One of those poor decisions involved an incident about 10 years ago in which two parents failed to properly store a loaded weapon in their home. Their alleged carelessness allowed their toddler to grab this weapon and fire a bullet that struck and hospitalized a teenager walking nearby.

To this day, I don’t think that the child’s parents received the punishment needed to ensure they didn’t repeat that mistake while compensating the family whose son sustained that gunshot wound.

Then there was an incident in which a man drove his vehicle onto the interstate while heading into approaching traffic instead of going into the correct lane. He ended up crashing into a vehicle near Glenns Ferry that ended up killing the driver and all three passengers in that other vehicle.

What really upset people was the fact that the driver who caused that crash had illegally entered this country versus taking the legal avenue to earn his citizenship. In addition, he was driving while under the influence of alcohol, which helped explain how he ended up driving the wrong way on the interstate.

Another thing I’ve dealt with as a news reporter for more than three decades includes the people in today’s society who feel they don’t need to be held accountable for their actions. Every time I sat in various criminal trials, for example, I honestly lost count of how many of them did everything they could to feign a sense of innocence despite the overwhelming evidence presented before them.

I still remember one trial in which the guy facing various felony charges told the judge he committed these crimes because he was “living hard,” and that led him to committing those crimes. Simply put, he tried blaming everyone but himself for his actions.

I think what society needs is giving these lawbreakers a greater amount of punishment that prevents them from ever committing these types of crimes ever again. But at the same time, maybe we can also give them more of a choice into which punishment they want to accept.

Case in point: I’ve lost count of how many lawbreakers sentenced for driving under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs get a simple “slap on the wrist” in terms of the punishment they receive. Instead of permanently revoking their drivers’ licenses to prevent them from ever getting behind the wheel for the rest of their lives, society tends to give them repeated chances to repeat those mistakes since those licenses only get suspended for just a few months.

Granted, some of these people do try to straighten out their lives and to correct the mistakes of the past. However, that road to recovery is one that doesn’t come easy and remains prone to seeing these same people relapse as their addiction takes control of their lives once again.

Maybe what today’s society needs is a way to keep people from repeating these same mistakes over and over again. It’s something I refer to as “the ultimate punishment.”

But in a matter of fairness, maybe that punishment needs to include something new: It would give lawbreakers a choice over what they need to sacrifice to make amends to society.

For example, anyone convicted of driving under the influence more than once doesn’t deserve to keep their driver’s license for the rest of their lives. During the sentencing hearing, the judge would announce that the one convicted of these crimes needed to immediately hand in their driver’s license and never get it back.

I would bet good money the person facing that punishment would start crying, “not my license! I need my car!”

“Okay then,” the judge would tell them. “Hand over all of your electronic devices.”

“What?”

“You heard me,” the judge would then add with their voice starting to sound a lot like a former Marine drill sergeant. “For now, you can keep your driver’s license, but never again will you be allowed to ever own a ‘smartphone,’ nor will you be allowed to have access to a Chromebook, tablet, computer or video games ever again.”

“What?!”

“What’s more,” the judge would emphasize, “is that all of your social media sites are hereby closed – permanently! Never again can you go to places like Facebook, Instagram and TicToc, nor can you ever go to other sites such as YouTube. In addition, your driver’s license will include a device that will flag people to never sell you any of these electronic gadgets ever again, and it also bans you from ever going to the library or other places as a way to try accessing these social media sites on those computers as well.”

“Uh…”

“So what’s it going to be? Choose!”

I’m betting good money what we’d immediately see is that convicted person reaching into their pants pocket or purse before extending their hand toward the judge. Whimpering and fighting back their tears, we’d hear the person’s whiny voice saying to the judge, “Here’s my keys and my driver’s license.”

While I might sound a bit sarcastic, look at what would happen if we suddenly had fewer people on the road because so many of them ended up surrendering the keys to their car or truck. In addition to dealing with less traffic and fewer drunk drivers on the road, I’m betting the price of gasoline would plummet to where it was 40 or 50 years ago, giving the rest of society a needed break.

– Brian S. Orban