Creative Sentencing Causes Monumental Misunderstanding

Updated: 2:14 p.m. PT May 9, 2005

BOSTON, MA – Local judge William Griffin, long known for handing out so-called “Creative Sentencing,” created some extremely unintended consequences with a recent verdict he had given to a petty criminal for a routine drug possession.


In the mid-nineties, Mr. Griffin adopted the practice of giving criminals that passed through his courtroom sentences which sought to punish through humiliation instead of prison time. He felt that his unique judgments could be more of a deterrent to potential criminals while helping reduce the strain on an already overcrowded prison system.

In February, Harold Johnson appeared in William Griffin’s court for possession of Crack-Cocaine. Since this was his fifth drug offense, Mr. Griffin decided that jail was obviously not working and sentenced the man to do something that he felt could help in the ongoing war on drugs.

Harold Johnson was instructed to spend the next three months standing in front of local schools with a signboard that said, “If you start smoking crack, you will end up looking like me. Kids, please, please don’t EVER smoke crack!” Mr. Johnson was given a rotating schedule to ensure kids in every school district would get the message.

The judgment went awry when Harold’s journey brought him to a local Catholic School with exclusively white students. An unruly group of six graders decided it would be funny to convince the kindergarten class that smoking crack was the reason Mr. Johnson turned black. Apparently, none of the children understood that people come in different colors, as they had never been confronted with an African American.

The full extent of the damage went unrealized until the annual kindergarten class field trip to meet the Boston Celtics. During a question and answer session with the team, one of the children asked player Gary Payton why he smoked crack. When Mr. Payton inquired as to why the child would think that he smokes crack, she replied, “Because you’re black.”

Her shocked teacher quickly worked to calm the enraged players, but everyone present thought cutting the trip short was probably the best idea. On the bus ride home, the teacher was appalled to learn about the ruse played on her class. The school explained the incident and has issued a formal apology to the team.