Prison Deterrent

On Saturday in Oakland, California Lovelle Mixon, 26, was pulled over by two officers during a routine traffic stop. He opened fire on the officers, killing them and later fatally wounding two SWAT officers who stormed the apartment in which he was hiding.

Originally the American prison system was established as a deterrent; anyone witnessing or even hearing about such brute confinement is naturally deterred from breaking the law. But, after two centuries prisons have morphed into factories of criminality. For some, prison is how to get initiated into the gang, but for others the anger of prison dregs up all the evil inside the person then lets them lose on the streets.

In the Torah/Teaching there are no prisons, but there are Ari Miklot/Cities of Refuge where the criminals live with their families praying for the holiest man in the country to die; when the Cohen/Sever Godal/Great died the slate was wiped clean and all accused were released from the Cities of Refuge.

According to the Cabala, crime happens because holy people do not adequately perform their obligations.