Justice has always been defined by a very simple structure for ages, it has always been about giving befitting punishment to crimes committed. For every crime committed in the society, there is a lawful punishment attached to it, but it is never about ensuring justice only. As a lover of social science, I have always stated that, humans are not the peaceful creatures we think we are. We have lived as humans for so long that we have forgotten about our true nature.
It is the laws made by the society that moderated human conduct, we are higher animals after all. The animal side of us used to be unhinged, laying waste to everything on earth. In order to ensure the safety of ourselves and the ecosystem, nations were founded, borders were defined and laws were created. All this was done to put the animal in us under control, at least we taught we did.
So the society decided, Why not put them in a confined and controlled space, those who put the peace enjoyed by the society in jeopardy. This space is known as a prison or correctional center, a place where criminals are kept, serving the punishment for their crimes. It is definitely a system that keeps everyone safe, this became the primary purpose of prisons but is that all it all about.
A prison is not just a place punishes offender, probably it is but looking at it that way might the whole idea of a prison sound negative. So for most country, it is known as a correctional center, which is synonymous to rehabilitation center. Now we know a prison serves different purposes but what is the main purpose, punishment or rehabilitation? Since we all know what punishment means, let's talk about rehabilitation and it's roles.
The primary purpose of rehabilitation is to restructure a human mind in order to shy away from any attitude considered to be a ill behaviour by the society. You might wonder why I said "considered to be a ill behaviour by the society", A human committing all sort of crimes and atrocities always find a justification for their actions, a reason to believe they have no choice but to do what they are doing. They create some sort of false reality that makes them believe what they are doing is the right thing no matter what anyone have to say about it, I mean have you ever wondered why a criminal choose to form their own gang/communities?
I believe both rehabilitation and punishment become the main purpose but the crime committed determines the one that will be given. There are two major thing usually considered while dealing with an offender which is the intention, what motivates such a person to commit a crime. Regardless of the intention the other thing that needs to be considered is what does the person derive from committing such a crime, this usually what differentiates a hardened criminal from a first offender. For a hardened criminals, From the few knowledge I have gathered I have realized that to them, committing crimes is pleasurable be it murder, rape, drugs e.t.c it is just a means to have fun.
For a first offender probably they stand a higher chances of changing their attitude through rehabilitation since addiction has not really set in but it changes when they find the crimes they commit pleasurable. For example, the most committed crime in where I'm from is fraud which has become even worse as technology keeps creating more method and tools for fraudster to map out their victims. First thing you need to ask is, are fraudster not aware of other legal ways of earning income? but regardless they chose to defraud people because to them it is way easier, To an extent they believe they are also working. Now imagine such a person going through rehabilitation, what are the chances of him coming out a changed man?
Now this is where its gets interesting, considering the rate at which rehabilitation has been able to correct the actions of a lot of individuals who were once considered criminals. Which means both rehabilitation and punishment are offered Simultaneously, while some punish are more cruel than the other but in some situation, some punishment are expected to be perceived as spending time to rehabilitate.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Justice in hive learners community.
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