Many of the people Tommy helped send to jail came from rooming-house and housing-project Hamp. Many never had much chance in life, he figured. And it often seemed as if the criminals and their victims were merely swapping roles, the one doing to the other what the other would do to him tomorrow. Recently, a case like that had come to court. Watching the defendant being sentenced to state prison, Tommy wondered if justice really was being served. A few days later, out on his rounds, he started thinking about that case again. He wondered alound, “If you commit a crime in hell, is it still a crime?” But doubts like those came rarely. His moral code and the penal code were not identical, but they weren’t often inconsistent.
Tracy Kidder, Home Town (New York: Random House, 1999). Page 51.
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