The Guardians

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-30

Chapters 31-40

Chapters 41-48

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Corrupt Nature of the American Criminal Justice System

The primary theme of The Guardians is the corrupt nature of the criminal justice system. The text unveils corruption at every level of the system. It’s seen in Duke Russell’s case, when DA Chad Falwright hopes to leverage his relationship with Judge Raney to prevent DNA testing of the pubic hairs in the evidence file. It’s seen when Sheriff Pfitzner takes money from the Saltillo cartel to frame Quincy. It’s seen when a lowly prison guard takes a few thousand dollars to help orchestrate a jump on Quincy. It’s also seen in the inmates themselves, such as the snitch Zeke Huffey, who lies in trials to lessen his own charges. Corruption is everywhere.

The corruption is so rampant that even the “good guys” like Post and Guardian Ministries can’t avoid it. They must operate within the system—as seen when Post bribes a prison guard for information, pays Zeke Huffey for his affidavit, and records Carrie Holland Prewitt without her consent. Post explains:

This can be a dirty business. We are forced to deal with witnesses who have lied, police who have fabricated evidence, experts who have misled juries, and prosecutors who have suborned perjury. We, the good guys, often find that getting our hands dirty is the only way to save our clients (119).

By bringing Post into the corruption, the book further argues for just how deeply ingrained corruption is in the American criminal justice system.

The discussion of corruption also touches on another theme, the idea of the “good old boys” club concept. This is a societal construct, referring to an informal system in which wealthy (white) men in positions of power (business, law, government, etc.) know one another and help one another in business and personal matters. Tyler even refers to the concept directly: “I wondered how often these good ole boys meet here for fun and games” (178). According to the narrative, societal constructs like the good old boys’ club help to uphold institutional corruption.

As an everyday citizen, it’s difficult to confront the fact that the criminal justice system—what is supposed to be fair and keep all people, equally, safe—is far from just. However, even the criminal justice system acknowledges its flaws in The Guardians. In one compelling moment, when the judge vacates Quincy’s conviction, he says: “I’m compelled to at least acknowledge that you have been badly mistreated by our legal system, and since I’m a part of it, I apologize for what has happened to you” (411). It’s a powerful moment, as the judge—symbolic of the system as a whole—admits the system’s corrupt nature, affirming the narrative’s central argument.

The Inherent Racism of American Society

The Guardians also levies a strong critique of the inherent racism in American society, flagging it as a major factor in the corruption of the criminal justice system. For example, Post suggests that Quincy, a Black man, was the perfect person to frame for Keith Russo’s murder. Post does not hold back when calling out the racial bias in Quincy’s case. Post even says that the only reason Quincy was spared the death penalty was due to the one Black juror on his jury.

The book drives home that, while racism itself is dangerous, it becomes especially dangerous when it enters the criminal justice system. The law should, by definition, enact justice. Justice should be free of bias. There is even the saying that “justice is blind,” which suggests that cases should be tried on facts and evidence, without personal bias. However, as The Guardians makes painfully clear, this is not the reality. Even Guardian Ministries acknowledges the power of race and operates within this framework instead of trying to dismantle it. They have brochures created to target different races: “If our target is a white guy, I use the one with my smiling face front and center. With the [priest’s] collar. If we need to approach a white woman, we’ll use Vicki’s. Blacks get the one with Mazy arm-in-arm with a Black exoneree. We like to say that skin color doesn’t matter, but that’s not always true. We often use it to open doors” (62).

Quincy’s character is the prime example of racism at play in the criminal justice system. The issue again comes to prominence after his jailhouse attack. Quincy is jumped by two members of the Aryan Deacons, a neo-Nazi prison gang rooted in racism. This makes the scheme to have two white Aryan Deacon members attack Quincy, a Black man, a perfectly “logical” plan. Presumably, the prison would assume it was a race/gang-related issue and nothing more. The connection between prison gangs and race, and the often racially motivated nature of gang violence, further underscores the dangers of racism.

The Corrupting Nature of Capitalism

The Guardians also makes a subtle argument regarding the corrupting nature of capitalism. The most obvious example is seen in Post’s critique of for-profit prisons, a major issue of contention in the American criminal justice system. Of the for-profit prison Zeke Huffey is held in, Post says:

The guards earn even less and there are fewer of them, the terrible food is even worse, the commissary gouges the men on everything from peanut butter to toilet paper, and the medical care is nonexistent. I suppose that in America everything, including education and corrections, is fair game for profiteers (63).

The purpose of prisons is, theoretically, to protect society and keep bad people off the streets. Creating prisons for profit is a dangerous prospect. Should anybody be profiting off another human being’s incarceration? What precedent might this set—or what dangers does it pose? There have been cases exposed in the US where judges were found to put people away in for-profit prisons in exchange for kickbacks, such as the ”Kids for Cash” scandal, in which judges put kids in juvenile detention centers for bribes.

The question of the dangers of capitalism—and its link to greed—is also raised in the many instances in which money changes hands in the book. Sheriff Pfitzner frames Quincy in exchange for money from the cartel while Zeke Huffey signs an affidavit in exchange for some cash and a more lenient sentence. Meanwhile, even the “good guys” like Dr. Benderschmidt aren’t doing their work for free. Dr. Benderschmidt gets $30,000 for his testimony in Quincy’s case. And Post notes that many sham “experts” in the past made a good living off of peddling their testimonies:

In the 1980s and 1990s, expert testimony proliferated in the criminal courts as all manner of self-anointed authorities roamed the country impressing juries with their freewheeling opinions […] Thousands of criminal defendants were convicted and put away by shaky theories about bloodstains, blood spatter, arson, bite marks, fabrics, glass breakage, scalp and pubic hair, boot prints, ballistics, and even fingerprints (78).

This begs the question of whether anyone within the criminal justice system, which is supposed to be about bias-free justice, should be able to profit from it at all.