I have a friend. His name is Danny. Danny is a pretty good kid: he is intelligent, he doesn't steal, he has a great personality, he is responsible, and he respected by almost everyone he knows. But, Danny IS still an adolescent. So, he does things most adolescents do; he drinks on the weekends, has fun with the ladies, and he smokes weed. Does that make him a bad person? Not necessarily. It sure doesn't make him a law-abiding citizen, but how many of us really are law-abiding citizens in this country? (Not too many.) Nonetheless, one weekend Danny got into a sticky situation. Danny was hanging out with some friends at a spot in my town where kids go to drink, and the cops busted up the little get-together. Most of the kids there were able to get away, but Danny was one of the unfortunate adolescents who got nabbed. Everyone had been drinking, everyone had been smoking, but only Danny still had weed on him, because of this Danny was arrested. Danny was given a court date, and eventually put on probation while the others who got caught barely got a slap on the wrist. Although it could have been a lot worse, and the incident did not go on his permanent record because he was not eighteen yet, his college future was in jeopardy.
The purpose of Danny's probation, as stated by The American Probation and Parole Association, is "...to protect the public interest and safety by reducing the incidence and impact of crime by probationers." Notice that the purpose of the punishment implies that Danny is a risk to the public interest and safety, that he is "the enemy of society as a whole" . The unstated purpose of the punishment had to do with making a spectacle out of Danny's crime, to let everyone know what would happen if the cops caught you with some Mary Jane, so as to strengthen the faith and belief in the system of the law- "Punishment as the making of a memory" . This in...