Can we please stop praising the prison attack on Paul Flores? | Opinion

We’re often taught that we reap what we sow.

Or to put it in more modern terms, we get what we deserve.

That may help explain many of the initial reactions to news of the attack on Paul Flores, who is serving a life prison sentence for murdering Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.

Many saw the attack as a crude form of justice.

“Hooray!” one person posted on Reddit, and got several upvotes.

“The prisoners will do to Paul Flores what the wacky liberals didn’t have the guts to do,” another person wrote.

There was a general certainty that the attack must be payback for the murder of Smart, who went missing from the Cal Poly campus on May 25, 1996. Due largely to a bungled early investigation, Flores wasn’t tried until last year.

To be clear, we don’t know much about the attack — only that it happened Wednesday morning in the prison yard at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga. Another inmate attacked him with a bladed weapon, either cutting or stabbing him in the neck. Flores was initially listed in serious condition but is expected to make a full recovery, according to his attorney, Harold Mesick.

There has been no confirmation of a possible motive, and probably never will be, but that’s not stopping the rumors.

‘I’m trying hard to muster any sympathy for him’

There were other, more thoughtful responses as well.

“I’m sure he has some family who love and care about his well-being, but I’m trying hard to muster any sympathy for him,” was one.

That’s understandable. Celebrating the attack as something that was “deserved” is not.

It condones prison violence and conveys admiration for those who would take it upon themselves to mete out the “justice” that a “soft-on-crime” society fails to deliver.

Do we really want to go there? Aren’t California prisons already violent enough?

This year alone, not a month has gone by without at least one incarcerated person dying of a suspected homicide at a state prison, according to news releases issued by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

In all, 13 have died so far this year.

In addition, one incarcerated person was shot by a correctional officer as he was strangling a cellmate.

Most of the men were serving life sentences for first-degree murder. Another had been convicted of molesting a child. One 22-year-old was serving 2 years and 8 months for firearms offenses.

Did they all “deserve” what they got, or was this a failure of our prison system to keep them safe?

In which case, do we really want to glorify a violent act in prison just because we believe it was “deserved”?

Do we truly believe in eye-for-an-eye justice?

The fact remains that Paul Flores was tried, convicted and sentenced to state 25 years to life in prison, which means he may be eligible for release someday.

That may not be harsh enough for some people, but it’s what our system of justice has deemed appropriate.

That same system acknowledges that incarcerated people are — to echo the words of prison reform advocates — capable of redemption.

If we don’t believe that, we might as well give up on them altogether and strip the word “rehabilitation” from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to transform San Quentin into a rehabilitation center?

Forget about it.

We prefer the old-fashioned, eye-for-an-eye system of justice, which is the message we send when we applaud any acts of violence in prison.

We don’t believe the majority of Californians want to head in that direction; they support the goal of rehabilitation.

But here’s the thing: We don’t get to pick and choose who is worthy of rehabilitation.

Regardless of how we feel about Flores, we can and should support a system that can provide all incarcerated people with safe and humane treatment and a road to redemption.

This has been updated to include more recent information on the attack.