Prison: Is It Meant to Punish Criminals or Rehabilitate Them?

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It's an interesting question of discussion regarding the recent experience I had with a criminal and the outcome so far: When criminals are sent to prison, what should be the main purpose? To rehabilitate them or for them to get punished?

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Honestly, without sentiments, the best option for the society is for them to undergo rehabilitation and be a better human in our society, but the truth remains that the people they hurt will always feel bad. If you read my recent posts, you can catch up with the criminal case I have been dealing with recently, and I must confess that it's been a long time of experiences.

When my husband and I arrested a criminal that dealt with our business directly, my husband was like, "Even if we don't recover the huge money involved, he would be happy to see the guy tortured and maybe change for good instead of such criminal mingling in the society, and looking for another victim he will suffer."

Our happiness when the guys pleaded guilty in court and were thrown into prison was that at least one criminal in the society is out of the way. But surprisingly, this guy has been in the prison, receiving both torture and correction, and we were like, "Before he finishes serving his years there, his brain will reset, and he will be a better person."Unfortunately, this guy, after all his experiences in the prison, came out to be the beast again.

He had the audacity to threaten me and my family with no feeling of guilt for what he did to us, no remorse, nothing, but a threat? I wonder about the kind of rehabilitation that goes on in the prison; maybe only a few people usually get rehabilitated, while the majority of the criminals remain worse than how they were prior to their arrest.

My relative who also arrested one of his workers had a terrible experience too. The guy, after spending years in the prison, came out and went straight to the same company of this my relative, pleading that he is already a changed person and that he needs his job back. After much pleading, my relative decided to try him, but on his first trip with their pure water truck, the guy sold all the product, dumped the truck anywhere he liked, and ran away with the whole money he sold for that day.

He never went back to the company; this is someone who has been in the prison, someone who we all expected to have undergone rehabilitation.

Personally, I will say that both punishment and rehabilitation are recommended for these criminals even though the people they hurt will feel the pain, but what matters is the society at large. To an extent you can try to change an adult; we can only try our best, but if rehabilitation of these criminals is automatic after spending years in prison, then it's the best thing to always do, but at the end of the day, how many of these criminals will really be rehabilitated? If wishes were horses...

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Prison: Is It Meant to Punish Criminals or Rehabilitate Them? | Ecency