Archive: Opinions

David Berry, Jr. was sentenced to 12 months in Lawrence County, Missouri for poaching several hundred deer over a three year period, and another 120 days in nearby Barton County.  He and two members of his family were accused of poaching in what the Missouri Department of Conservation called one of the biggest poaching cases in state history.  Berry was also sentenced to watch Disney's 'Bambi' once a month during his incarceration.

This raises a unique issue.  Should sentences in the criminal justice system be outsourced to Disney?  This could make sentences more appropriate and specific to fit crimes, and save millions of taxpayer dollars.

For example, in animal cruelty cases, lock the perp in a small cell with 101 dalmatians and make him feed them and clean up their poop.  Or in murder cases, have a wizened witch with a basket of apples knock on the convict's cell door once a day and offer him a poisoned apple.  Washington officials convicted of lying to congress would have to get a nose job to enlarge their proboscis.  Pedophiles would be locked up with a ticking crocodile.  I think I'm on to something here!

Last year Time Magazine named 'Bambi' one of its 'Top 25 Horror Movies'.  Movie critic Richard Corliss wrote, "Amazing that the first movies parents took their tots to in the ’30s and ’40s were the early Disney features. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio and Dumbo all exploited childhood traumas. Parents disappear or die, stepmothers plot the murder of their charges, a boy skips school and turns into a donkey. Kids were so frightened by these films that they wet themselves in terror. Bambi, directed by David D. Hand, has a primal shock that still haunts oldsters who saw it 40, 50, 65 years ago."

It almost makes Berry's sentence seem like cruel and unusual punishment.  Until you consider he cut off all those deer heads and left their bodies to rot.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in 2015 that 67.8% of released prisoners were arrested again within three years after being released from jail.  Within five years that went up to 76.6%.  Our criminal justice systems is clearly broken if the point is to make society safer.  If the point is simply to punish criminals, I suppose it is working, but how does that help society?  If three quarters of criminals keep being criminals, there are simply more and more and more victims.  And more.

So I think this Disney idea has potential.  Not only should criminals be subjected to Disney experiences, but law-abiding citizens, too.  How cool would it be to have cartoon bluebirds circling your head, proving to the world that you are a good person?

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