Justitia: Goddess of Justice

The corrections department prison van that ferries prisoners from courthouse to jail displays the service's symbol: the goddess of jus­tice, blindfolded, holding the scales of justice in her left hand and a sword in her right hand. And so the goddess of justice shuttles back and forth between conviction for crime and service of sentence, seemingly forever.

Justice in the ancient world

How did we get this idea of a god­dess of justice who weighs crime and punishment, which she then executes with her sword? It appears that all ancient states had a goddess of justice among their many deities. For the Egyptians she was Maat. Egyptians seem to have been the first people to depict the scales of justice—and they were used to weigh hearts. Maat withheld judg­ment until people had completed their lives; then she weighed their hearts on her scales. If the life value of the heart tipped the scale, she would guarantee a pleasurable af­terlife. If not, the jackal—watching the scales of justice—would get the heart as a meal.

The Greeks revered Dike (pro­nounced Deeke) as their goddess of justice. Daughter of the chief god Zeus and the goddess Themis, Dike was given a place right next to Zeus. The Romans named her Jus-titia (justice) and depicted her hold­ing the scales of justice, a staff sym-

bolizing authority, and an olive branch and horn of plenty. In Rome's early days Justitia was as in­terested in handing out peace and rewards as she was in weighing crime and punishment. But the later Romans dropped the horn of plenty and olive branch and left her holding only the scales and the sword. Later, Justitia appears blind­folded, so that she may not be bi­ased by seeing the person before her—the origin of the term " blind justice."

Gulliver reported a whole differ­ent notion of justice among the Liliputians. Their goddess of justice was far from blind; in fact, she had six eyes: two in front, two in back, and one on each side. She held a sword in her left hand, not the strong right hand; in the right hand she held a bag of gold to give out rewards.

The ancient Germans had a kind of goddess of justice, too: Aunt Holly. Nowadays she can be found in the company of Santa Claus, handing out presents to children at Christmas. But in the ancient fairy tale " Aunt Holly, " she tars and feathers the delinquents and show­ers gold on the good.

With the advent of Christianity, the goddess of justice was demoted to a saint, Santa Justitia, and people became a bit suspicious about her ability or willingness to deal out jus­tice in an evenhanded manner. A medieval woodcut shows Santa Jus­titia without blindfold and with her scales uneven—one justice for the rich, one for the poor. In Western civilization, Justitia has come to symbolize penal justice in the sense of distributive justice, in which pun­ishment is meted out in accordance with the gravity of the crime.

But today we shy away from the word " punishment." American criminal justice practitioners have switched from " punishment" to " corrections." This may be little more than a change in labels, well-meaning but misleading: The prison van, meantime, with the goddess Justitia painted on its side, still shuttles between courthouse and jail house.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE PRISONER'S LIFE

Prisons have been de­scribed as institutions, in which every aspect of life is subject to control. In addition to daily routines such as mealtimes, times of rising and retiring, and bathing, many other aspects of the pris­oner's life are subject to control. This control is a means of maintaining security, controlling the introduction of weapons or contraband substances, and preventing escapes. Most prisons limit the number of visits that a prisoner may receive from his family or friends. In England the Prison Rules allow a convicted prisoner one visit every four weeks, although the prison gover­nor may increase or limit visits at his discretion. Only relatives and friends of the prisoner may visit him, although adequate facilities must be available for visits by legal advisers if the prisoner is engaged in any litigation (for instance, divorce pro­ceedings). Visits normally take place within the sight of an offi­cer, and in some cases within his hearing. In many prisons, vis­its are conducted with the prisoner sitting on one side of a table and his visitor on the other, with a wire partition between them; the visitor may be searched for contraband. In other prisons the conditions for visiting may be less restrictive—the visitor and the prisoner may be allowed to meet in a room without any physical barrier but still in the sight of officers. Conjugal visits, in which the prisoner's spouse comes to stay with the prisoner for a period of several days, are not permitted in England, but some U.S. states do permit them. Correspondence of prisoners in England is subject to censorship by the prison authorities, and prisoners may not write more than one letter each week. Control of the prison is maintained by a number of disciplinary sanctions, which may include forfeiture of privileges, confine­ment within a punishment cell, or the loss of remission or good time. Generally, prisons are governed by rules setting out a code of conduct and listing prohibited behaviour; the code must be given to the prisoner on his arrival in the prison. Typically, the prohibited offenses include mutiny and violence to officers; escaping, or being absent from a place where the prisoner is required to be; and possessing unauthorized articles.

Parole and Life Licence

In England and Wales prisoners serving determinate sentences of more than 12 months become eligible for consideration for release on parole licence when they have served one third of the sentence, or six months, whichever expires the later. (In Scotland they also qualify after 12 months.) About three-quarters of prisoners serving sentences of less than two years receive parole. However, for those serving sentences of over five years for violence and drug trafficking parole is granted only in exceptional circumstances, or otherwise for a few months at the end of the sentence. The parole licence remains in force until the date on which the prisoner would otherwise have been released from prison. It pre­scribes the conditions, including the maintenance of contact with a su­pervising officer, with which the offender must comply. In 1987 about 5.2 per cent of prisoners granted parole in England and Wales, and virtually none in Scotland, were recalled to prison. Parole is not available in Northern Ireland, which has more generous remission terms.

The release of prisoners serving life sentences is at the discretion of the Home Secretary or in Scotland the Secretary of State for Scotland, subject to a favourable recommendation by the Parole Board or the Pa­role Board for Scotland and after consultation with the judiciary. The Secretaries of State are not, however, bound to accept such a recommen­dation for release, nor are they bound by the views of the judiciary. At the discretion of the Home Secretary, people serving life sentences for the murder of police and prison officers, terrorist murders, murder by fire­arms in the course of robbery and the sexual or sadistic murder of chil­dren are normally detained for at least 20 years. At the end of 1987 there were about 2, 400 life sentence prisoners detained in prisons in England and Wales of whom about 140 had been detained for 15 years or more. On release, life sentence prisoners remain on licence for the rest of their lives and are subject to recall should their behaviour suggest that they might again be a danger to the public. In Northern Ireland the Secretary of State reviews life sentence cases on the recommendation of an internal review body in such a way as to reflect their gravity and to take account of Northern Ireland's special circumstances.

 

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