Letters

Democracy works because we don't expect it to be perfect. Yet a person makes one mistake and we keep him or her locked away for life. While our other beloved institution, the church (in particular the evangelical church, that self-proclaimed voice of God) rants and raves about sin, it hardly ever acts on Jesus's words: "I have come to set the prisoner free."

According to de Tocqueville, a democratic society's caste system comes disguised as lawyers and judges acting in accordance with the best interests of society. The real horror, to use Conrad's terminology, will be to one day wake up to the realization that our criminal justice system was nothing more than a way to justify differences among the classes, just because there was no other way to legitimize an aristocracy.

Manny Losada
Miami