I hear a lot that "Hathian" has no criminal justice system. A lot of people complain about the "catch and release" style of HPD. I'm here to offer a different perspective.

I'm not an expert in criminal justice or the U.S. legal system. However, I have taken many classes in both, and related, subjects. I've also worked as a journalist who had to write up city council and county commissioner meetings (snooze fest!). If you want a criminal justice system, if you want something other than catch and release, then YOU need to roleplay that out. Show Nadir that it can be done, that people are actually interested enough and willing to commit to roleplay outside of the norm.

Here's how.

The U.S. criminal justice system is crowded. Jails all across the country are filled to capacity with inmates. Overcrowding is a human right's violation though, so various courts will do what they can to get people through the bottleneck called jail (because if they don't, they get fined). Some people get out on bail. Sometimes, attorneys will make plea deals with an eye towards thinning out the jail population. As part of that deal, some people get probation.

So if you are in jail, you would see a judge who decides if you can get out on bail (sometimes you can get out on a personal recognizance bond, but that's pretty unlikely to happen in Hathian). If the judge decides you can get bail, he sets the amount of your bail. Then you would contact a bail bondsmen and sign a contract with him/her. Since no one is playing a bondsmen right now, you can NPC him, have someone else roleplay that they spoke to one, or have a lawyer do that.

You could roleplay that you were released as part of a plea deal, which includes probation, therapy, drug testing, etc. A probation officer would harass you, show up at your house unannounced, make sure you're working, interrupt your bang bang sessions with that hot chick/dude you've had your eye on for awhile.

If you are fully committed to having more roleplay than the norm, the prison and the asylum are both viable options! You could also have a court trial.

Because sometimes a question does come up that does require an unbiased decision, I have two people (not alts) who have agreed to read arguments, look up law, and make a decision using both. They don't roleplay the part, but they can make a decision based on guilt, innocence, and so on. Put them to work!

I know all of us at Hathian Civil Services are good looking people with a divine sense of fashion, but we're good roleplayers too! USE US! Just don't abuse us. We are sitting over here with very little work related roleplay, simply because people don't think to involve us. And I'm around a lot. Put me to work. I'm happy to facilitate whatever roleplay you want.

You can complain about CD, or you can be the change you want to see here (yes, I stole that, now hush). We don't need any kind of system to do any of what I've talked about, we just need communication, instead of being complacent. Yes, I'm calling you out 😛

So let's do this.

TL; DR: Stop complaining about "no criminal justice system" and "catch and release." Come roleplay with ppl at Hathian Civil Services!