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PUNISHMENT VS. REHABILITATION – THE BETTER OPTION
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PUNISHMENT VS. REHABILITATION – THE BETTER OPTION
AUTHORED
BY- ARCHI AGARWAL[1]
‘If he has a
conscience he will suffer for his mistake; that will be punishment —
as well as the prison.’[2]
INTRODUCTION
The battle between
good and evil has been fought for ages. Humankind has suffered at the hands of
injustice and has become the prisoner of its own mind. People act due to their
instincts or their need to get revenge or simply because they think it is their
only option. Resorting to the last resort they commit crimes, aid in wrongful
doings, and then are left to the mercy of the judicial system that prevails
above all. The question that now arises is -do all the prisoners deserve the
hostility they are met with or do some of them have a chance at redemption?
PUNISHMENT
The convict needs to
repent and punishment is the right way of doing it – the thought of the masses.
Every offender must pay for his crimes because no matter what he did, the law
prevails. Rehabilitation was the traditional approach, people believed that the
offenders could be cured and it was a mental sickness that led to the crime
that was committed. He or she could ask for forgiveness and God would show them
the path. So, the guilty got away with ease and more heinous crimes took place
that made everyone believe humanity was lost and pure evil had taken place thus
imprisonment and the death penalty became the newfound approach. The history of
punishment is adorned with four theories – deterrent theory, retributive
theory, preventive theory, and reformative theory. The first three are
concerned with punishment for crime and as the name suggests the fourth theory is
concerned with rehabilitation.
The motive behind
punishment –
The motive behind punishment
is simple – to set an example for all the people in society as to what fate
they will be met with if they commit a similar offense. That might be the
primary reason however the secondary reason is that the victim is given the
justice he was seeking for. As time passed people started getting tough on
crime it was the only way they could reduce the crime rate they worked with one
single mindset – the crueler the punishment t[3]he
more fear is instilled in people.
Contrary to what the
law thinks the statistics show a different story - A comparison on a global
scale reveals some intriguing patterns. Norway changed its emphasis 20 years
ago from punishment to rehabilitation (including for people who were in
prison). Large decreases in reoffending rates followed this. Norway's
reoffending rate is about 25% after five years, compared to the UK's rate of
about 50% after a year.2
REHABILITATION
To describe rehabilitation it means the
offenders are put in a facility where diving into their minds through the help
of professional psychologists they form an understanding of the crime they
committed and how it affected the society at large. The main thing that the law
looks for when charging someone for an offense is – ‘mens rea’ meaning the
intention of doing something or the intention of refraining from an act. Now
what if all the guilty did not have any intention of committing the crime what if
they were suffering from a mental illness or were a victim of substance use that
clouded their thinking? Do they reserve a life behind bars?
Rehabilitation eases a person to their
surroundings, so once they complete the process they know how to go about their
normal life whereas compared to people in prison when they are let out they
have a hard time being back in reality. Although not everyone can change their
fate through rehabilitation, some people know they are wrong and continue to
live their lives that way and those are the people who deserve a kind of life
that is spent behind bars,
The reformative theory of punishment which
was talked about earlier is the theory of rehabilitation that only works when
one acknowledges the crime he/she committed and feels remorseful for it. Rehabilitation
is a proper mechanism that functions only when the offender accepts the crime
committed and puts effort into becoming a better person and at the same time
proving themselves worthy of being sent back to the society to which they are
not a threat anymore.
COMPARISON
In modern times the focus of law on how to
deal with convicts is turning again toward rehabilitation as it seems to make major
changes in the reoffending rates. The current trends, logistics, and statistics
– in short, the economy related to crime all advocate rehabilitation. The
question that now begs our attention is – should punishment be eliminated? the
answer to this question is -no as there have been fair arguments that have been
made in favor of punishment. the purpose of law is to provide justice but most
of the time the focus shifts to the law being effective. We can consider
whether a sentence is likely to discourage future offenders or help the
offender, but these are efficacy considerations and have nothing to do with
fairness. A doctor only inquires about an "effective cure," never
about a "just cure" or "fair cure." We give up on justice
when we opt for effectiveness. Prisons are not hospitals, and the State is not
a physician.[4]
Thomas Szasz advocating punishment said, ‘If
he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and
this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good,
and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law
cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal
order’.[5]
CONCLUSION
To find a way to what can be done the
best way is to strike a balance between the two, they are like the opposite
sides of a beam balance. Only one of the two things is not an option both
methods need to work in unison and thus bring a change in the society. Leaning
towards the statistics rehabilitation may be the most effective approach
between the two. The debate continues on a larger scale to seek the right path,
however- Durham Constabulary is in charge of Operation Checkpoint,
one of the biggest rehabilitation programs. This "deferred
prosecution scheme" enables offenders for some categories of relatively
low-harm offenses (such as theft or criminal damage) to escape prosecution
provided they take part in a program that addresses their causes of offending,
such as mental health conditions or substance misuse. When compared to similar
offenders who did not participate, the initial set of data from this program,
which was just published, shows a 15% reduction in reoffending rates.[6]
There are and will always remain infinite
arguments that will support one opinion or the other with changing times the
perspectives will differ and there will always be more disagreements than
agreements. Something that seems just in 2023 might not be just in 2050 and
thus we need to decide what is more operative for the present. Retribution and reformation
both fall in the same league they both seek to serve the purpose of the law
which is – an egalitarian society. B.F. Skinner in his own words said, ‘A
person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a
given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment’.
[1] The author is a student at
Galgotias University, Greater Noida
[2] Esther Lombardi, ‘Crime and
Punishment ‘ ( Thought CO., 08 May,2017 ) < https://www.thoughtco.com/crime-and-punishment-quotes-2-739396>
accessed 06 August 2023
[3]Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, ‘Why
Rehabilitation -not harsher prison sentences-makes economic sense’ (The
Conversation, 24 March 2020) < https://theconversation.com/why-rehabilitation-not-harsher-prison-sentences-makes-economic-sense-132213>
accessed 06 August 2023
[4] Ryan Hamill, ‘ Why Punishing Criminals Can Be More Merciful Than Rehabilitation’ (The
Federalist, 21 November 2016) https://thefederalist.com/2016/11/21/punishing-criminals-can-merciful-rehabilitation/)
accessed 07 August 2023
[5] Thomas Stephen Szasz, The Meaning
of Mind: Language, Morality and Neuroscience (Syracuse University Press) 36
[6]Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, ‘Why
Rehabilitation -not harsher prison sentences-makes economic sense’ (The
Conversation, 24 March 2020) < https://theconversation.com/why-rehabilitation-not-harsher-prison-sentences-makes-economic-sense-132213>
accessed 06 August 2023
Article Information
PUNISHMENT VS. REHABILITATION – THE BETTER OPTION
Authors: ARCHI AGARWAL
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Published 2024/02/08
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- Abbreviation IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
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