Prison: punishment or rehabilitation, Should someone pay their entire lives for a crime.
A news segment got me thinking about this and I’m curious what other perspectives are.
The article was about a teenage boy who murdered a teenage girl via strangulation. Because he was a minor at the time in my country you can’t release their name. He’s finished his sentence and is due to be released soon and the victim’s family want laws changed to be able to publicity name and shame him. They want to do this for “the safety of the public”.
I’ve seen Law and Order SVU episodes on a similar issue. In regards to rapists who finish their sentences. As weird as it sounds they normally focus on for lack of a better phrase run of mill offenders. Like I know these are horrible crimes but they aren’t Jeffery Dahmer or Dennis Rader level horrible.
And I’m conflicted on the issue.
On one hand I understand the idea. These people committed rape/murder which is awful and I wouldn’t want to live near them either. And the families/victims want them to suffer, I get that sentiment.
But if we give people sentences that they can finished/served even without parole. Shouldn’t we focus on rehabilitation first and punishment second? To make sure society is safe with them out? This guy, the one that’s a teenager, killed someone and he’s done his time shouldn’t we leave him alone and allow him to reintegrate into society? Or should we sentence all offenders like him to remain in prison their entire lives? I also feel like if we continue to name, shame and make this ex prisoners lives miserable their just going to commit another offence bring more pain into the world. And we would have been better off having them rot in prison.
okapi-forest-unicorn t1_it65wgi wrote
Reply to /r/philosophy Open Discussion Thread | October 17, 2022 by BernardJOrtcutt
Prison: punishment or rehabilitation, Should someone pay their entire lives for a crime.
A news segment got me thinking about this and I’m curious what other perspectives are.
The article was about a teenage boy who murdered a teenage girl via strangulation. Because he was a minor at the time in my country you can’t release their name. He’s finished his sentence and is due to be released soon and the victim’s family want laws changed to be able to publicity name and shame him. They want to do this for “the safety of the public”.
I’ve seen Law and Order SVU episodes on a similar issue. In regards to rapists who finish their sentences. As weird as it sounds they normally focus on for lack of a better phrase run of mill offenders. Like I know these are horrible crimes but they aren’t Jeffery Dahmer or Dennis Rader level horrible.
And I’m conflicted on the issue.
On one hand I understand the idea. These people committed rape/murder which is awful and I wouldn’t want to live near them either. And the families/victims want them to suffer, I get that sentiment.
But if we give people sentences that they can finished/served even without parole. Shouldn’t we focus on rehabilitation first and punishment second? To make sure society is safe with them out? This guy, the one that’s a teenager, killed someone and he’s done his time shouldn’t we leave him alone and allow him to reintegrate into society? Or should we sentence all offenders like him to remain in prison their entire lives? I also feel like if we continue to name, shame and make this ex prisoners lives miserable their just going to commit another offence bring more pain into the world. And we would have been better off having them rot in prison.
What are your thoughts?