Crime and Punishment

Although I dislike the idea of any authority over the People, I think it may be necessary to have some limited authority simply to address the small amount of crime that cannot be addressed by the radical redesign of the economic system and/or proactive intervention. As with any criminal justice system, there are three primary motivations for punishing criminals. These are 1.) For the protection of the victim as well as the protection of other uninvolved parties from future activity by known criminals (neutralize the threat) 2.) To reform the criminal individual for release back to the general population so as he will not further disrupt others’ lives 3.) To provide discouragement for likeminded would be criminals.
To meet the demands for protecting people against those who seek to infringe upon others’ rights as well as to meet the demands of limited authority on the part of the government, a more just economic system, the elimination of class distinction, and complete, recallable democracy, perhaps a melding of my earlier thoughts on anarchist communism and a democratic socialist system, is in order. The government could be structured on two levels: local and national. On the local level, an elected, immediately recallable council would enforce justice as well as produce and provide products and services for the People. On the national level, an immediately recallable elected (by the People) council would link all of the local councils together. The only power either level would have over the People would be that to ensure that no one person infringed upon the rights and liberties of others. Although I will not go into the logic in detail right now, the councils would also be tasked to ensure that no monetary trading would take place as money creates inherent inequalities and therefore infringes upon the liberties of some. Money would not exist as all goods and services would be provided for. Labor would be on a voluntary basis, in fact independent goods and services producing organizations could obviously exist because of the fact that liberty is not restricted as long as it does not interfere with others’ liberties. Private property would not be eliminated, rather it would be considered part of the individual and the individual’s freedom to use however (s)he wanted as long as it did not infringe upon others’ rights and liberties (ie building a polluting factory on it). Inequalities in private ownership would be corrected by the freely available goods and services local councils and private groups would produce (out of organizational purpose).