The Bootblack Stand
Plunkitt, George Washington
"The Bootblack Stand" Dear Dr. Plunkitt: Recently I took a break from my writing and lecturing and spent some time in a federal prison just helping the convicts learn the essentials of good manners, sound bodily...
...I am fetched by those who call for a radical reordering of the system...
...For them crime is the good, and who are we to gainsay minority group values...
...Clearly- the time has come to take extraordinary measures in dealing with crime...
...It is that many Americans commit crime because they like crime...
...Plunkitt 's book is about the importance of altruism in politics and it is titled What's in It for Me...
...Regards, Jeb Stuart MagruderDear Mr...
...Unfortunately, while I was helping others, others helped themselves to my belongings, not only the personal effects I had locked away in my locker but also several books which I had been using in my college lecture series...
...One was a hard-to-get classic by Dale Carnegie and another did not even belong to me, John Dean's Simplified Version of the Bible...
...Prison guards are often just as pathetic as prisoners...
...What this means as I understand it is that we not only decriminalize all crime but that we make illegal those actions that are today considered legal...
...They may have been taken by prison guards thirsting for knowledge...
...GWP Dr...
...What I am suggesting is that we can, in one swoop, cut down the incidence of crime in America while ridding our democracy of moral repression, by simply decriminalizing crime...
...Not only has our attempt to impose our sense of the good on others proved ineffectual, but it is a kind of moral tyranny that is clearly out of touch with the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the World Food Conference...
...This should put an end to the old myth that the people we enjail are just common criminals...
...they just dress differently...
...Such people clearly adhere to value systems which, though different from the middle-class white system, are nonetheless valid in their own right...
...Obviously that would not be prudent at this time...
...Magruder: Hold on...
...You're jumping the gun, so to speak...
...Admittedly prisoners may be uncommonly admirable people whom society has misunderstood but so might prison guards...
...Plunkitt: Recently I took a break from my writing and lecturing and spent some time in a federal prison just helping the convicts learn the essentials of good manners, sound bodily hygiene, good grooming, and tennis—things essential for rehabilitation...
...If you are really serious about changing the system this is the surest route, and from all indications several members of the Democratic Study Group are preparing the legislation even now...
...is celebrating the publication of his new book, which is now available at avant-garde bookstores throughout New Jersey...
...These are people who are thirsting for knowledge and yet we just lock them up...
...You see, I am an advocate of the old axiom that if one is good to oneself one will be good to others and thereby a better world will obtain...
...On the college lecture circuit I intend to speak out on behalf of prison reform...
...Cordially, Barbara Walters Dear Miss Walters: Your suggestion appears, at first blush, to be genuinely innovative, but I fear it is only a half measure...
...After all, how do you know that your belongings were stolen by convicts thirsting for knowledge...
...GWP Dear Dr...
...George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst...
...Some of them are as fine as anyone I have worked with in years...
...Address all correspondence to The Bootblack Stand, c/o The Alternative...
...Plunkitt: New York's current excitement about law and order has got me thinking about the whole matter of crime, criminals, and the people who are driving these gifted people into infamy—you and me...
...Instead I suggest we decriminalize those crimes in which the perpetrator is apprehended and identified as a chronic repeater...
...With crimes like mugging, burglary, and simple manslaughter rising despite the increased expenditure of public moneys to halt this increase, one simple factseems to elude policy makers...
...I have long suspected that much of the virtue ascribed to prisoners by prison reformers is really the virtue of prison guards...
...Although Dr...
...Plunkitt expects to earn ten million dollars from sales of his new book, he has agreed to continue to advise public figures through this column...
...This would not be a blanket decriminalizing...
Vol. 8 • May 1975 • No. 8
