GAGA Crime and Punishment

Following the end of the Second Corporation Wars in 2920, the GAGA established a well-defined criminal justice system with clearly delineated approaches to crime and punishment.

The GAGA assembly drafted a Galactic Citizen’s Bill of Rights with a section dealing with citizen rights and criminal activity, entitled Rights of the Galactic Citizen. In one of only four unanimous votes of the GAGA Assembly, it was determined that the main drive of the GAGA was to create and maintain effective, productive citizens with access to basic amenities of life through the GAGA, and to ensure that citizens could be made as productive and effective as possible for the duration of their natural lives, then determined to be 120 years. As part of this declaration, minimum levels of mobility, health, nutrition, access to amenities and freedom of opportunity were laid out.

In addition, the GAGA Criminal Defense Committee laid out in 2924 a then current list of crimes along with a table and flowchart of rehabilitation entitled The GAGA Criminal Rehabilitation Flowchart.

This document is updated every five years, following Galactic vice-presidential elections. In it are laid out a comprehensive list of crimes, the ways in which such activities reduce the effective productivity of the citizen and a list of possible causes for, and remedies to, the underlying discordances that caused the criminal activity.

The Committee was able to, with relative certainty, come to fairly strong determinations of the reasons for criminal behaviour due to the long exposure of its citizens to a variety of different environmental situations. With over a thousand years of data to collate, psychiatrists, doctors and other specialists had come to understand that in addition to the age-old pressures of hunger, dearth and addiction, there were also various environmental causes for a pre-disposition to crime. These included exposure to the wrong kinds of electromagnetic, geomagnetic and celestial energies, buildup of various heavy metals in the body, exposure to various micro-organisms, chemicals and other substances. The GAGA also realized that what was a healthy and conducive environment for one individual could be a suppressive and toxic one for another, leading to criminal mis-behaviour that was largely due to misplacement of the individual.

For this reason, Galaxy-wide baseline psychological and physical evaluations were made mandatory starting in 2930. Children were evaluated with scanning technology shortly after birth to determine the scope of their baseline physiology, basic receptiveness to conditioning/creative thought, predispositions for certain conditions and relative susceptibility to various exo-environmental forces.

Every seven years, citizens were given re-evaluations to mark out their continued development and try to find ‘stresses leading to criminal activity’ and remedy these before they turned to transgression of the law.

The system, while effective in limiting a great deal of crime, was not infallible. Resources were often pinched at certain times, leading to ‘lost generations’ in the GAGA. These individuals were more predisposed to transgression activities, and fell into the Galactic Universal Rehabilitation (GUR) wing of GAGA resources.

The GAGA Criminal Rehabilitation Act was established with the aim of “determining the definitive cause of criminal activity in the individual” with an eye toward “redirection of the individual’s energies, using re-education and relocation to allow the transgressor to maintain as full participation as possible as a Galactic citizen.” As part of this, the GUR was created to take criminals convicted by GAGA courts and rehabiliate them into society. Any citizen of the GAGA received two rehabilitations and relocations for their grevious crimes. On the third crime committed on the GAGA’s Grevious Crimes list, the individual would be taken to a prison colony for use by the GAGA itself. These colonies were generally harsh but humane, although several notable degradations are on record.

During the first rehabilitation process, the GAGA’s complete physio-psychological evaluation would be examined. The Flowchart was consulted to determine if any environmental stresses, toxic buildups or other physiological abreactions had occurred. If this was found to be extant, then the GUR would remedy them, re-evaluate the individual and prepare them for reintroduction to society. If any psychological issues still remained- counter-productive conditioning based on the aggravating factor, abusive habits etc- then re-education, conditioning and behavioural therapy were given.

Once the individual passed secondary evaluations, they would be re-introduced to the GAGA. This involved giving the individual a new identity card and placing them in a new sector of the Galaxy. Restrictions on travel, work and other activities stayed on their permanent GAGA file- these restrictions prohibited the individual from exposure to the stressors that induced the crime.

Over 85% of criminals thus rehabilitated stayed contributing citizens and had no further criminal activity of note.

The remaining re-offenders, once convicted of their secondary Grevious Crime, would be sent back to GUR facilities. A secondary physio-psychological evaluation would take place, and remedies were applied. More intensive re-education and psycho-social rehabilitative measures would be taken, including aversion chips, cybernetic implants and neural stabilizers to prohibit certain negative activities. Once the individual passed a secondary examination that proved them ready for re-habilitation, they were again re-introduced to GAGA society, this time restricted to certain sectors/quadrants of the Galaxy, dependent upon the indivudal’s environmental limitations.

On the third transgression, individuals were given a final GUR re-evaluation and a definitive diagnosis for their recidivism was delivered. These criminals were sent to work camps and GAGA outposts on the edge of the Galaxy, either to work in basic labor units for GAGA resources, or as ‘place-holders’ on the frontiers of the Galaxy, to stake GAGA claims. Life was remote and assistance minimal, but the GAGA would still check in every few months with evaluators for compliance to Rights of the Galactic Citizen Act. Although most asteroid work camps and remote colonies functioned within baseline parameters, corruption and smuggling were rampant; as a result, sometimes the level of care fell well below GAGA standards.

 

GUR and GAGA workers had the right to comandeer any camp or colony that was sub-par and rectify the situation, up to and including taking command of it. Any officials of these camps that were found guilty of transgressions leading to the poor conditions were themselves charged with criminal violations and entered into the GUR system.