Is corrupt justice better than no justice?

Welcome to the blog that asks the tough questions. And the not so tough ones, on occasion.

In Romania we lack many things. Corruption and theft is not one of them. In fact we are approaching post-scarcity in that area. But in the last several years, there were multiple high profile arrests for corruption. This gave some people hope, but is that hope false?

An issue is that this is not just a matter of justice being served, but the system used by the people in control to eliminate rivals. It is often used as a political weapon. When you stab someone in the back, you want to make sure you do it properly, or else he may come back to fight. If someone want to reduce the influence of another in a party, getting him marginalized helps, but getting him in jail helps more.

All that being said, the people going to jail are not innocent. They are guilty as hell. So in a way justice is served. Guilty go to jail. But if the justice is just a weapon, then it is not true justice and will not solve the issue of corruption, it will just make an example of a few. And if the courts are a political weapon, the average citizen will never be sure that justice is served, and no one can think that they can get justice if they need to. It basically pollutes the whole system.

Most people do not care of abstract notions of justice. They are just happy to see some thieves go to jail, although sadly little if any of the money is recovered. So the mob wants some blood, politicians give it to them, while settling their own scores. Some of the corrupt overextend, don’t share enough, or just become fall guys. People are happy because they see the guilty punished, and they don’t care how or about any principle of justice. In the short term this can have a vague positive effect of keeping things at least vaguely in check, but in the long term it is very dangerous and can undermine the whole system.

source: regional Romanian newspaper

The idea is there are multiple interest groups in conflict and they will rotate in power and jail the other guys. This is only half true. There is plenty of trans-party corruption. And while they are in conflict for the lion’s share of the spoils by being the ones in power, the work together for the spoils. No one want the gravy train stopped, they just want a bigger share. True anti-corruption is not in the cards in a meaningful way.

But make no mistake that most of the fall guys are guilty. This is why some people believe justice is at least somewhat served. A big fish must occasionally fall in the net. And these people, like mobsters, know full well what they get into. SO I don’t care that much about the ones who go to prison, as much as the integrity of the system.

So is it good the guilty go to jail, even if only because they became in conflict with others in power?