The recent passing of Robert McNamara provides us with a critical opportunity to reflect on redemption, one of our most deeply held values. As an architect of the Vietnam War, McNamara is inextricably linked to one of the most controversial events in recent U.S. foreign policy. For some, the War, particularly its brutality, will be Mr. McNamara's only legacy. To others, though, he serves as a powerful example of the human capacity to change and grow.
What certitude do we have as a nation that sees no opportunity for the light of goodness to shine on even the most stone covered seed? This question comes to mind amidst the recent decision by the Supreme Court to hear two cases on the sentencing of youth to life in prison without parole.
For more than 2,500 incarcerated youth in our country, our federal justice system and state courts around the country have left them shrouded in despair, sentencing them to life without any chance for ever seeing light beyond the pale concrete confines of prison. There actions, indeed, deserve retribution. However, the complexity of adolescents makes it difficult to see any good in a sentence that denies a young person any opportunity for rehabilitation.
Last month the Appeals Court of Massachusetts issued two decisions regarding prisoner access to health care, both of which have vast implications for prisoner rights. Through their rulings, the court affirmed two critical American values: redemption, the belief that humans are evolving beings who warrant the chance for rehabilitation when they falter, and healthcare as a human right. The cases, Sullivan v. Correctional Medical Servs. et al. No. 07-P-964 72, 2008 WL 2552982 (Mass. App. Jun. 27, 2008) and Kilburn v. Dept. of Corrections et al., No. 07-P-987, 2008 WL 2566382 (Mass. App. Jun. 30, 2008) concerned claims of negligence due to poor dental care provided to prisoners by private health care contractors hired by the state. Part of the case for the prisoners' claims rested on an appeal to third-party beneficiary rights. Third parties in contracts have the right to sue if they can prove that they are the intended beneficiaries of the contract and are reliant on the contract. Through their rulings, Massachusetts courts suggest that prisoners have standing as third party beneficiaries and can thus sue private health care providers despite their exclusion from the contract between the state and these private contractors.
In Kilburn v. Dept. of Corrections the Court ruled that the state cannot simultaneously deny responsibility for those healthcare duties delegated to its contractors and claim that those contracts were not meant to benefit the prisoners. The fact that the state would make this argument to begin with is reflective of the larger shortcomings of the prison-industrial complex. By contracting out the care of prisoners to private entities, the state claims that it is not liable for inadequate care provided by these groups. The Appeals Court of Massachusetts took a stand for the right of prisoners to proper healthcare, and more generally to fair treatment, by stressing the state's responsibility in prisoner care. It went further to argue that inmates' lack of standing to sue as a third party beneficiary of the contract does not make the state immune from liability or free from responsibility. Simply because prisoners do not have the means to raise claims does not absolve the state of its duties.
While the decisions do not explicitly grant prisoners third-party beneficiary rights, they mark an important
step in this direction. They document the receptiveness of the court third-party claims in government contracts on the part of prisoners. Moreover the rulings affirm that the state cannot divorce itself from its responsibility to prisoners. Practicing redemption means providing the conditions that allow people to develop, to rebuild, and to take full responsibility for their lives after misfortune or mistakes. Through its decisions, the court asserted the state's own responsibility in providing these conditions for prisoners. This particular case concerns dental care, but it opens the door for an invigorated conversation about the fundamental human rights of those people behind bars, and the responsibility of the state in caring for those prisoners such that they may one day reenter society and have the opportunity to achieve their own, full potentials.
I'll have more about Scottie McClellan later on. But I just want to begin with a simple observation about coming from my own values. And one of the most basic values that I have is a belief in forgiveness and the possibility of redemption. This doesn't mean letting folks off scott free. But it does mean rejecting the notion of vengeance, and focusing on other considerations instead.
So, yes, McClellan was just a wee bit tardy in finding a conscience. And, yes, he did get paid handsomely for it. He's not about to earn sainthood for this book, that's for damn sure.
But there's a bigger picture here-as in, it's another chink taken out of the wall of denial. And the media has to deal with it somehow, Versailles has to deal with it somehow. It's giving some folks a bit of indigestion, and reminding others of what a pack of liars and fools we have running our country. So how is that a bad thing?
Forgiveness and redemption are things that need to be earned, and this book is best seen as a downpayment. It's an encouraging sign that McClellan has said he would testify before Congress if called. That's just what a further step in the process of redemption ought to look like.
You see, there's an even bigger bigger picture here. We're talking about the need to bring about a reckoning for a gang of sociopaths that have very nearly destroyed our country. This is not the first time they've tried it, but every time they had tried it before, we've let them off with a slap on the wrists. And now things have gotten so bad, they've done so much damage that there are a lot of people out there who think we can't "waste time" trying to bring about a reckoning for their countless misdeeds. All we have time to do, some say, is devote ourselves to cleaning things up.
