An article in this morning’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quotes a Marquette undergraduate student with respect to his sense of connection to the university. The student, Dominic James, an excellent player on Marquette’s excellent basketball team, recently was injured and will be unable to play for the balance of the season. In discussing the support he receives from the team, Mr. James said,

I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys. It’s hard just discussing it. That’s my family. The support has been unbelievable. And it’s not just from my teammates; it’s from the whole Marquette family. That’s the reason why I came here . . . and that’s the best thing about this university. It has nothing to do with how long the ball’s bouncing; it’s got to do with how long your heart’s beating. And as long as my heart’s beating, I know I’m going to be taken care of when it comes to Marquette.

What a remarkable statement about the connection between a student and his university. I wonder whether (and certainly hope that) such connections are possible in a law school.

As we continue to deal with the likes of Bernie Madoff and other swindlers who have lost millions of dollars for their investors, perhaps Elie Wiesel has a good idea on how to punish all of them. Holocaust survivor, human rights activist and author Elie Wiesel lost his entire life savings with Madoff. His charity, the Elie Wiesel Foundation, lost another $15.2 million. As Wiesel said, “‘Psychopath'” is too nice a word for him. This man knew what he was doing. I would simply call him thief, scoundrel, criminal.”

Speaking on a panel last week about what punishment he would like to see for Mr. Madoff, Mr. Wiesel said,

I would like him to be in a solitary cell with only a screen, and on that screen for at least five years of his life, every day and every night, there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other after the other, all the time a voice saying, “Look what you have done to this old lady, look what you have done to that child, look what you have done,” nothing else.

Professor Jonathan Hyman, in forwarding this lovely snippet to me, noted that this sounds a lot like part of a Restorative Justice process. I agree. Since Madoff will never be able to pay his victims back or help them put their lives back together, perhaps the best punishment is to be reminded daily of how many lives he ruined.

Cross posted at Indisputably.