The words, "Tzadik Tzadik Tirdof," which translate to "justice, justice you shall pursue," from Deuteronomy 16:20 adorn the walls of many Jewish lawyers. In Alan Dershowitz's book Taking the Stand, he recounts that when he clerked for Judge David Benzalone, the judge asked him why the word "justice" is repeated. Dershowitz replied that the first tzadik (the Hebrew word for justice) refers to legal justice, and the second tzadik refers to compassion. Judge Benzalone responded, "No, compassion must come first."
The principle that justice requires compassion has been a staple of modern jurisprudence. In fact a major difference between conservative and liberal jurisprudence is often how much weight is given to compassion versus strict legal justice.
But what about the second half of the verse—"you shall pursue"? Unfortunately, people tend to resist engaging in strenuous work, and imposing devastating sentences that ruin people’s lives takes a huge toll on us. As a result, the criminal justice system often resisted the strain of imposing life ruining sentences by reducing defendants to a mere file or viewing them as lesser human beings. This dehumanization frequently leads to overlooking compassion, a fundamental component of justice. The Torah anticipated this tendency, which is why it added the second half of the verse: "you shall pursue." This serves as a directive to resist succumbing to the ease of dehumanization in our legal processes.
When the system fails to consider the effects of incarceration on a defendant and their family, it misses a crucial aspect of justice. If a defendant goes to jail, he may lose his apartment, which may mean his spouse and children also lose their home. We should not resist considering these impacts; rather, we must actively weigh them. This is not to say that no one should go to jail, but rather that we should seek alternatives that sufficiently achieve our goals of punishment and rehabilitation, resorting to incarceration only when other options are insufficient.
If we do not actively pursue treating the accused as human beings, and resist the impulse to treat them as files, we will stop treating them as people, and in return stop pursuing justice.
