Punishment Code Tales Ch. 02

This is one of an anthology of short stories that take place in my world of Judicial Punishments. I aim to explore a variety of stories and characters whose lives are directly impacted by the new justice system and even those who only brush up against new codes. Each chapter is unrelated to the last so don't worry if you jump in in the middle and if one is not to your taste then the next one might be. Please feel free to comment and to private message me. I love speaking with readers and I value all of your input. I hope you enjoy.

***

Molly Robertson sat in her office and looked over her office. It still wasn't quite where she wanted it to be but she didn't really get to spend much time in it with her schedule anyway. It was very old fashioned. The desk was large and made of dark wood and on three of the four walls there were shelves of the same color that were full of untouched books that were mostly for show. All of the important legal material was online now, especially for Molly's specialization: the Judicial Codes.

Two and a half years ago, just as Molly was finishing law school, the legislature reformed the criminal codes so that minor infractions, like traffic tickets, and non violent crime, like shoplifting, could be punished with painful corporal punishments and humiliating public nudity and sometimes at the same time. Since the laws first passed hundreds of punishment centers were built across the country and tens of thousands of people had been punished under the codes.

Molly had gotten very lucky. Obviously, she was a young woman when the laws debuted and, at the time, everyone suspected that he laws were going to be mostly targeted at them. In time, the data bared that out. Molly was well placed to be an early expert on the laws and when she was hired by the law firm of Braxton and Braxton, she moved up the ranks very quickly as litigating the new legal landscape took up a lot of attention. Now as a Senior Associate, she was almost certainly going to be a partner in the next year or so, that was if she didn't decide to strike out on her own.

At the same time that she was helping with cases, she had also been a bit of a public figure. She was the expert on the new laws and there was a lot of media requests. She helped prepare the partners, at first, for appearances on news shows but eventually she was asked to be the public face of the firm on the issue. From there, she had become the public face of the legal activism against the law and in defense of those subject to them. She was sure it helped that she was a young blonde woman, but she had also written a number of articles that were published in law reviews so she could back up her public image with legal chops. Molly had also built relationships with some activists and organizations committed to repealing the laws or at least reforming the way that they were implemented.

She had ambitions and she knew she was on the right track. One day, she was going to be part of the case that brought these laws down. Molly suspected that the laws were sexist in origin though supporters of the laws pointed to statistics that women were disproportionately more likely to commit non violent crimes than men and that was why women were an outsized number of the victims of the codes. Molly thought it was a tenuous argument but that was where the jurisprudence was at right now. Still, one day that argument was going to work and either the legislature or the superior court was going to agree.

Until then, though, she had to deal with the laws and for the next few hours she was going to do what she got into the profession to do: help defendants. Twice a month she held office hours for perspective clients and people who wanted simple answers for simple questions and today was one of them. These free consultations made Molly feel like she was really a lawyer whereas sometimes all of her other responsibilities sometimes distracted her. It was good to get back to this kind of work a couple times a month.

She looked at the clock and saw that there were only a few minutes until her first appointment would arrive so she looked at the questionnaire that the client had filled out. Shuffling through papers, she learned what she could.

The first potential client was named Salwa Farouk and she was a twenty-four year old woman in town. She had been referred by one of the organizations that Molly worked with, the USSJP or University Students Surviving Judicial Punishments. They were a university support group so Salwa was probably a student at the local college. There was a place in the questionnaire for details but the woman hadn't put much. It seemed like a question about the punishment after a traffic incident. Molly wished there was more information so she could prepare like pulling up the specific law or code, but she was just going to have to do that research on the fly after she spoke to her. Hopefully she brought all of the legal documents she'd received with her as they were instructed to when the receptionist confirmed their appointment.

It probably didn't matter. Most of these meetings were fairly simple. Most matters came up over and over so, by now, Molly knew the answers to those by heart. A light flashed on her gray office phone and Molly put it on speaker. "Hey, Mona," she said to the secretary, "Is my appointment here?"

"Yes, ma'am," Mona answered, "Are you ready for her?"

"Yep, I'm ready. Page me if I go long with her. I know I have another in an hour," Molly told the receptionist.

"Will do. Miss Farouk will be right up."

The phone went dark as Mona hung up and Molly stood up from her desk and walked so she stood near the door. She straightened her navy blazer and slacks to make sure she looked the part and soon there was a knock on the door. She stepped forward and opened it.

In front of her was an olive skinned young woman. She was on the shorter side and her brown hair peaked out from beneath a gray head scarf that hung to her shoulders. She had on a tan turtle neck sweater with cables and blue jeans tucked into black boots. In her hands she had a manilla envelope that must hold the documents that were requested.

"Hello, Miss Farouk," the lawyer said, reaching out a hand.

"Hi, Ms. Robertson," the woman answered, hesitating before shaking her hand.

"Here, have a seat," Molly said offering the woman a comfortable chair that sat across from Molly's desk. Molly walked around and sat as well, "You can call me Molly, if you'd like. What would you like to talk about?"

Salwa looked around and Molly could tell she was feeling nervous. Molly reminded herself to move up renovating her office as it wasn't the most calming locale and spoke, "It's ok. For the next hour, I'm your lawyer. I'm here to tell you the facts but also to make sure that you know what is going on and that might make you feel more comfortable. Anything you say is confidential even if this is the only conversation we have."

"Ok," Salwa muttered, "I'm not sure I can afford you, anyway, so this is probably it."

"I don't want you to worry about that. If we decide that you need to retain counsel then we can talk about that. There are funds to help pay if you meet certain criteria so I don't want you to worry about that. But we should come back to that at the end. Let's spend our time on more important matters," Molly said.

"Ok," Salwa nodded.

"So tell me about yourself," Molly encouraged her.

"Well," Salwa started, "About six weeks ago I rear ended a car on the way home from the hospital . . ."

"Salwa, no," Molly interrupted, "Tell me about yourself. We can talk about your situation in a minute."

"Oh, ok," Salwa said in her quiet voice, "Well, I'm a medical student at the University. I grew up here in the city and I'm the youngest of four. I have an older sister and two brothers who are between us. I-I don't know what else to say."

"That's ok," Molly said, "So how do you like med school?"

"Oh, it's ok. I'm starting to shadow specialists, now. My parents always wanted me to be a doctor."

"I'm sure you make them proud," Molly assured her.

"Well this whole situation has them mad. They think, well, that this is going to ruin me," she paused, "You know why people come to you. It's kind of hard to be modest with these penalties."

"Ah," Molly said, her mind racing through precedents of religious and moral exemptions to laws, "I understand. Well, why don't we move on to that. Would you like to start at the beginning?"

"Um, sure. I was driving home from the hospital after classes, and I rear ended a car. I got out and the other driver was really, really mad and yelling at me. Soon the police were there, and he yelled at them too," she paused to see Molly nodding along, encouragingly, "Eventually I talked to the police and I learned I didn't have my proof of insurance. I had insurance but my card was expired. They interviewed me and they wrote up a report which I signed and then they told me to expect something in the mail."

"Ok," Molly said to show she was listening. Hopefully, Salwa brought that report that she signed with her and the mailing was probably the Summons that spelled out her charge and punishment. With a car accident like that, there wouldn't be a court proceeding unless Salwa requested one.

Salwa continued, "When I got the summons, it was just terrible. I got charged with failure to control my vehicle, driving my vehicle too quickly for road conditions, and not having proof of insurance which all make sense. I couldn't contest those, but the punishment just seems like way too much and . . ."

Salwa trailed off and Molly was about to suggest allowing her to read the documents when the med student continued, "I don't think I can do it. I think it's too dishonorable. So I guess I'm just asking if there is anything that I can do to ask for a different punishment."

Molly tilted her head as she thought. Negotiations for particular penalties usually happened as part of a plea bargain, but it wasn't a hard no for Salwa's question. "Can you share what the penalty is, perhaps?"

"Right, yeah, sorry," Salwa mumbled, "I mean, I'm going to be a doctor. I shouldn't be so embarrassed." She raised her hand into a fist and thrust it forward, "I think the term is punitive penetration of my vagina."

Molly's eyebrows rose. Of course, she had had a handful of clients that had been given a J40 before, but no woman could hear it without feeling an instinctual dread. It was, also, very surprising that that was the sentence given her charges. Molly tried to not jump to conclusions, but she had expected a public exposure punishment and that Salwa, obviously modest and presumably religious, did not want to be seen naked in public. This punishment must be even worse if her family cared about her virginity but she was going to let the other woman bring that up, checking herself for making conclusions based on Salwa's dress. All these thoughts raced through her sharp mind in just a moment before she spoke, "That must be very scary. There is definitely a conversation to be had about appealing your specific punishment. May I read the documents you brought me, quickly, please?"

"Oh, yeah, of course," Salwa said handing it over, "I just . . . I just." She took a deep breath to continue, "I'm sure you've noticed I'm Muslim and I don't want you to think I'm some sheltered little girl. I've tried alcohol and I skip mosque some weeks but it's still important to me. I don't think my dad could ever look at me again if something was inside me like that."

Molly gave the girl her most supportive smile as she took the envelope, "I understand. Let's see what we can do ok?"

Molly opened the manila envelope and pulled out the thick stack of papers. There were three different documents. The police report and the Judicial Summons was expected but the third surprised her. It was a victim statement. That was rare for this kind of case. That usually happened for much more serious crimes than this.

Her eyes scanned the statement and it seemed like a very long winded way to complain about anything that he could thing of. Salwa's car scratched his, dented it, he blamed every strange sound it made on the accident and then, probably what really led to the severe punishment, he said that the accident had given him whiplash and he suffered from long term pain. Molly had heard of this type but usually it was lawyers dealing with insurance companies that encountered this type of person.

It didn't seem like there was really the case for a charge like causing injury with a motor vehicle. There was no intent and it would be hard to draw a straight line between his pain and the car accident, but the judge seemed to have taken his injuries into account when he chose the sentence. That didn't seem fair but judges had a lot of latitude and the recommendations were just recommendations not mandates. He was in his rights to pick any punishment and it would take a pretty heavy sentence to be worth suing over.

She put down the victim statement and picked up the police report. Her eyes jumped to Salwa's personal information and she was glad to see that Salwa was a citizen. It would have been an extra complication to talk about immigration issues. She read over the police report and it matched what Salwa had told her. It included evidence that she passed a field sobriety test and the officer suggested fatigue as the cause. That made sense since she was coming from the hospital where she must work hard. Apparently the supposed victim had also complained about pain that night too, which, to a judge, made his complaint seem more legitimate.

Then the lawyer took up the Summons. It was a thick stack of papers held together with a large black clip that every offender sentenced to the new punishment codes received. To lay people it was almost incomprehensible except for a single paragraph that stated their crimes and their sentence. It didn't even spell the sentence out. It just gave a number and they had to flip through the stack of papers to find a description of the actual punishment and those were written to be vague so that each Punishment Center could adapt the punishments to their resources. Buried in the document were also directions for how to appeal and how they must prepare for the day of their punishment.

Even to Molly most of it was unimportant but she had read it so many times that she could probably quote it while half asleep. Her eyes went to the important part:

"Salwa Farouk, you have been adjudged guilty of failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle, exceeding safe speeds in a motor vehicle, causing damage to private property with a motor vehicle, and failure to provide proof of insurance. You have been sentenced to a private, short-term, physical punishment. Please refer to the punishment codes in the Judicial Punishment Codebook that is included in your document packet. The code(s) that refer to you is/are J40. Please follow directions located in the Codebook. Schedule a session of the appropriate length on the Judicial Punishment website."

Molly furrowed her brow. The extra charge of causing damage to private property was also going to increase her sentence. Salwa was very unlucky that the prosecution stacked all the charges on top of each other. It could easily just be the first and nobody would have batted an eye. The J40 was harsh but Molly recognized well worn judicial logic in the decision. If the judge had made the punishment public then it might have been a less severe corporal punishment but Salwa would likely hate that too.

Molly sighed. It had to be J40 didn't it? She didn't have to flip to the entry in the Codebook, she could recite it from memory like she could many of the punishments: "The offender will be subject to penetration of their vagina with a rigid insert. The insert will be of an appropriate sized as a function of the offender's height and weight as determined by the officers of the Punishment Center and will remain in situ or adjusted as appropriate to ensure punitive function."

Molly then flipped to, perhaps, the most important part of the form, which many offenders never even read. Her eyes searched for a couple important dates and unfortunately for Salwa, they weren't ideal. Molly sighed and spoke for the first time in a few minutes, "Well, this tells me a lot. The guy that you hit seems like a piece of work."

"Yeah, I feel the same," Salwa agreed, "I know it's really my fault but he makes me mad."

"That's understandable. However, we can't do anything about that so let's deal with what we can," Molly said, getting down to business.

"So there is something that I can do?" Salwa asked, brightly.

"I think there are some strategies that could work, however they aren't guarantees," Molly explained.

"Ok," Salwa said, deflating.

"Unfortunately, there is no way to appeal the charges. That date has already passed. Have you signed up for your appointment yet? That changes things," Molly explained.

"No, I haven't been able to make myself do it," Salwa answered.

"That's actually a good thing. It means you haven't signaled contentment with the punishment. However, you have also missed the date to appeal the punishment through the usual means," Molly said.

Salwa deflated further and looked down at her lap, "Oh, really? I didn't even know that existed."

"They hide it deep in the Summons," Molly grumbled. The opacity of the system was the subject of many a court case but there hadn't been much progress on that front.

"On purpose," Salwa asked.

"Maybe. That's why it's good to speak to a professional," Molly answered.

"Well what are my options, then?" Salwa continued.

"Well, there are some more creative options but first you have to tell me your goals for the litigation. You will have to be realistic. There is zero chance that you'll be able to avoid punishment but it might be that we can work to make the punishment more acceptable," Molly explained.

Salwa went quiet and her eyes went from her lap to all around the room and then back to her lap as she formulated her answer. Molly watched as she turned red and it was clear that Salwa was wrestling with something, "Sorry, it's just really hard to talk about this. It's not something I usually talk about, y'know?"

"Of course," Molly said, "You get to feel however you want to feel and I will work hard to help you get what you want."

"Ok, well, what I really to do is to not lose my virginity. I just grew up my whole life with my mom and sister telling my how important it is and I knooooow that it's really no big deal . . ." Salwa explained.

"It's ok," Molly assured her, "It's important to you and that's what matters." It was clear that Salwa was split between two minds. She was raised by parents with some conservative mores and she bought into many of them but she was also a young, modern woman who thought those beliefs might be a little outdated.

"Yeah, I know. That's what the USSJP said, but those girls are just so, I don't know, liberated so I'm not really sure they take me seriously," Salwa continued.

Molly nodded. She had a good relationship with that organization and the leaders were definitely not conservative. "Is there anything else you'd like to avoid?"

"I mean. I don't have any clue if this is possible but can I be punished by women? I'm not supposed to, you know, entice men," Salwa told the lawyer.

"Well," Molly thought, before explaining "It's not really something that I would suspect to get. Courts don't like interfering with the way that Centers operate on a day to day basis. They would say that maybe they just don't have any women available at that particular time."

"Oh," Salwa said looking down again.