Rehabilitation vs Retribution

[Randy]

Should the criminal justice system focus more on rehabilitation or retribution (punishment)?

 

[Kasynlie]

Where appropriate, rehabilitation otherwise lock 'em up.

 

[Nebulous]

With many, being locked away, punished and serving time is rehabilitation in itself.

Im not sure what rehabilitation actually means though. Should we provide the inmates with therapy?

 

[Kasynlie]

With many, being locked away, punished and serving time is rehabilitation in itself.

Im not sure what rehabilitation actually means though. Should we provide the inmates with therapy?

I'm sure you remember the Shawshank Redemption movie. Here's a quote from it,

1967 Parole Hearings Man: Ellis Boyd Redding, your files say you've served 40 years of a life sentence. Do you feel you've been rehabilitated?

Red: Rehabilitated? Well, now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.

1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society...

Red: I know what *you* think it means, sonny. To me it's just a made up word. A politician's word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?

1967 Parole Hearings Man: Well, are you?

Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.

 

[Payton]

Rehabilitation should be the method used unless the patient is incurable, or did something really bad, like for instance a cult of strong religious believers that feel like their god is telling them to kill.

 

[xneseyx]

rehabilitation should be the first method tried except in extreme circumstances.

 

[Nebulous]

Whats wrong with doing both at the same time?

 

[Nebulous]

Right, because everyone in the world is a clone of your husband. Nobody is capable of having different results.

 

[Jazzy]

Prison changes people and it's not for the better in any situation. My ol' man spent 3 years inside and when he came out, he was not the man I married. He's cold, cruel, heartless, mean, vindictive, angry, self-serving and just wicked. The prison system is punitive and nothing more.

Is it not true that your husband spent three years of his life in prison for a crime he was found innocent of? If you spent three years of your life in prison for a crime you did not commit would you not feel they way he feels now? I think a better statement would be that the prison system is unjust in certain circumstances.

 

[DrLeftover]

I have a BA in sociology... amongst other sorts of academic and professional accreditations.



I worked for 10 years in a state correctional institution, in everything from minimum security to super max with death row inmates.



At least in this case, I know of which I speak.



First.

Most inmates/convicts Will get out of prison. They will serve their time and move back into the community and resume their lives. It is solely up to them whether or not they also resume being a criminal.



Second.

Rehabilitation is a fancy word that bleeding hearts whisper to each other to make themselves feel better about the whole thing. If the convict does not want to change their ways, they will not, and there is nothing you can do about it. If the convict sits in classes while in jail and gets his diploma then gets out and goes back to a life of crime, he will just do so with a better education.



Third.

Yes there are innocent people in jail. Their are also guilty people in society. And there are people in prison who are not in prison for what they actually did, but the majority who are locked up are not as pure as the driven snow and the majority are not in there for missing Sunday school class.



One more.

The Death Penalty is a deterrent. I raise the case of one Mr. James Allen Red Dog who I met on several occasions while I worked in his building. He was in a gang and killed while in prison. He turned state's evidence against the gang and was placed in Federal Witness Protection and let out. He raped and killed again and was sentenced to death and eventually executed. Red Dog admitted he would never change, and if he had a chance, he would kill again. (they have a word for that.) He has been deterred, he will never kill again. Yes there is a chance an innocent will be put to death. The chance is small, but it is there. But do you want the Red Dogs of the world in your neighborhood? Our society is far from perfect, but it seems to work pretty well most of the time. And in this one case, it did.



Conclusion.

Jail is not the ideal solution. But its about all we got. If you have a better solution, trot it out and we'll give it a look. But before you do, it must account for the falsely accused as well as the Red Dogs of the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/04/us/states-execute-two-murderers.html

 

[The Dragon Master]

Should the criminal justice system focus more on rehabilitation than retribution?

 

[DrLeftover]

Should the criminal justice system focus more on rehabilitation than retribution?

Explain the difference in the case of a career criminal (a gang banger for instance) who sees nothing wrong with their way of life other than they got caught.