The Opportunity of Justice

by: friar Angel Garcia, OFM Conv.

After being in Shamokin, Pennsylvania and experiencing great people with fascinating stories, we moved along to Maryland.  I was trying to identify what is possible in a better justice system, and how that differed from the typical justice system that I was accustomed to see everywhere, not just in El Salvador (where I coming from), but in everywhere.  But I discovered something else on the road as we continue as friars our summer experience.  I saw while I was in Baltimore a different direction. For example, we were introduced to a different kind of judge.  Dennis M. Robinson Jr. is trying to do something different and more balanced by recognizing that, no matter what, every individual is important and to see them as human beings deserving of respect, and also balancing mercy & justice by giving them a second chance in the society.

We were observers in his courtroom at the Circuit Court in Baltimore county as he went through the day’s docket. We saw different cases and we saw how the judge tried to do something different depending of the situation of each case. He could weigh the complexity of many cases in which he tried to apply a fair justice for the betterment of the people, the family, and at the same time looking out for the common good of the community in which they live and work.

As a result, to me, this is a very clear example of giving a justice to the people who need help in a broken justice system that it is in desperation for help, and in many cases, doesn't allow the individual to grow and get out of a circle of violence and stuck-ness.  As John Paul II once said, "from the justice of one individual born the peace of everyone". It is necessary to create or to transform part of the society that is broken, instead of just increasing repression and barriers in society.

Only with a different perspective of applying justice, might we see something better and with healthier results in the lives of the individuals, families and in the society. Otherwise, we are going to continue to fall in the of the same cycle of what it has been. Judge Dennis, with his example in the court room, is doing the part of a concrete disciple of Christ when he tries to apply fair justice in a system that in many cases doesn't care for values and much less for the respect of the human dignity of the individual.