THBT rehabilitation should be the only consideration in criminal sentencing.
Primary goal of criminal justice system is to remove offenders from society and
protect the law abiding citizens. Furthermore, all of their actions should be linked
to the purpose of giving victims justice. The status quo shows a few
characteristics in the current criminal justice system-
1. current criminal justice courts which award sentences to prison for those
guilty engage in a form of victim closure. This is very psychological.
Imagine the trauma of a person who saw his father being shot dead right
in front of him. Days later, he will feel a bit better in court, knowing that
the murderer has been awarded a death sentence and will rot in jail for the
rest of his life.
2. Most prisons already offer rehabilitation facilities till a certain extent-we
still see poor prisoners being taught skills like cooking and tailoring so
they can earn a livelihood after their period. Other systems such as those
in UAE obviously send drug peddlers to jail but have mandatory rehab
facilities for first time offenders as well.
3. Currently, in countries like UAE which have strict laws and very brutal
sentences, people often restrain themselves from committing acts of
violence or other crime. Due to criminal sentences in prison, people
become afraid of going into jail, losing their reputation and becoming
unemployed and thus the punishment system becomes an important
deterrence for many people, leaving fewer criminals.
An imp clarification is that we don’t completely oppose rehab concept.
What we are against is of the proposal that only rehab should be involved
in criminal sentencing. We are favouring a world where punishment
remains the primary element of sentencing, also accompanied by
rehabilitation when possible and according to the crime committed. For eg.
we don’t think it ‘s feasible for developing countries like India to rehab all
prisoners including those who committed theft, but rehab drug peddlers
gives a mucher higher incentive to the govt.
Three inherent problems:
Emotionally traumatic for person: Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of that same
person whose father was murdered. Now we think that their trauma will be
further aggravated when they get to know that the murderer will be placed in a
comfortable rehabilitation center rather than facing true justice. Instead of
punishment, the criminal gets counseling, training, and a second chance at
life—while the victim’s family is left with an irreplaceable loss. This system
is likely to create mistrust in the justice system and mentally harm
many victims and their families, such as rape survivors, who will be
mentally unstable throughout their lives if they get to know that the
rapist simply got to visit a month of training sessions for free.
Not enough on its own-doesn’t stop people from
