It Just Depends on the Case

I am not entirely ignorant of the American criminal justice system. I've had the "pleasure" of visiting a women's prison for one of my college classes. And yet, I cannot make a clear cut decision on whether I prefer rehabilitation to punishment when it comes to criminals. I mean, I know where I stand on things such as the death penalty (I'm against it), but when it comes down to the nitty gritty of how to treat our criminals, I am not a 100%.

When they are youths, I can easily say rehabilitation is the way to go. They are still young enough that perhaps they could change, that we shouldn't lock them up until are older and do not know how to deal with the world. In my opinion, they will probably just end up at they same place they left. So, the youth system should target not as much towards punishment but instead having them learn and become better human beings. Perhaps that is too optimistic, but I would not see it any other way.

What struck me when I visited the women's prison last fall was how much they tried to prepare them for when they left. They could have a job (which payed like less than a dollar an hour), or take classes, or even learn about being a hair stylist. They were being given skills to function in the outside world. I was very impressed by the woodworking they did, making cabinets and other furniture. Others were learning electronic printmaking, and actually made stuff for people outside of the prison to buy. There was separate cell area for the people who were to leave in like 6 months or less, and there were additional programs there, such as training difficult dogs, for them to participate. They were doing their time in jail but learning from it, and how to deal with them coming out on the other side.

I suppose that what I saw there is what I think is a good balance between punishment and rehabilitation, in which the facility probably leaned more towards rehabilitation than punishment. I just don't see the point of just locking criminals away without trying to help them at all and then expecting them to be able to function when we release them. I'm not surprised they would offend again.

And I feel like in some part the one of the ways to change the pattern of criminals is to change the people coming out of prison so they won't be able to influence the youth like that, but perhaps in a better way. I just think rehabilitation would have a better chance of creating a good cycle of change than the other options in the criminal justice system.

Now of course, I do not think we should go around rehabilitating everyone. There is a threshold, at some point you have to think this person will not change. But then, how do we judge that threshold. By length of prison sentence, by type of crime. And that comes in the issue that one size does not fit all, but not everything can cater to everyone. There has to be some sort of standard for how we treat are criminals. They are still criminals; they still did something wrong; they still have to be punished to some extent. And so here is where I struggle with it, and why while I was happy with what I saw at the prison I went to, besides the food, it almost seemed like it was a pretty good deal. Of course I didn't see any of the bad, none of the trouble, but it didn't seem like too bad of a place. But then again we shouldn't be trying to put our criminals in an inhumane environment either.

And of course, I am beginning to ramble. If you haven't figure out by now, I think there is probably a line between rehabilitation and punishment. People see that line in different directions. I think I see that line on how it is implemented in real life. Ideas are nice, but I would much rather see how they work in person than judge them on potential.

So, to sum it up the best I can. I lean more for rehabilitation because I do think people should be given the chance to better themselves and because I think it is better for society overall instead of releasing criminals out in the world who may not care about the punishment given them.