Once ensnared within the same system he unabashedly promoted, Kerik became a vociferous critic of mass incarceration
Much of the reason for Kerik's harsh, above the guidelines sentence, may be that his excesses angered other officials by inadvertently calling attention to the gross hypocrisy of the entire system of justice. Harshly punishing Kerik may have been a feeble attempt to send a message that Kerik was a rogue and an outlier.
The real message was that those who feast off of the system will act decisively to protect their domain. Kerik, despite having served his masters well, had become a liability and had to be punished accordingly. The notoriously vindictive Bush White House was never going to let the embarrassment that Kerik wrought upon it go unanswered.
Having Kerik position himself as a prison reform advocate serves the system in other ways. He is widely recognized as being beyond damaged goods. Part of the dehumanization process that is ingrained within the U.S. justice system is the diminishment of one's opinions after victimization. In short, criticism of the system post-release is generally attributed to hard feelings or "bitterness," completely side-stepping the legitimacy of the issues raised. So while Kerik's cursory and unfortunately superficial observations are accurate, they are in reality of little moment, pose no serious threat to those desperately trying to maintain the oppressive status quo, and may, in fact, strengthen the justice system's ability to perpetuate ongoing crimes against the populace. Bernard Kerik, a notoriously corrupt (but hardly unique) former law enforcement official, is almost certainly doing more harm than good in his new role as prison reform advocate.
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