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There’s a need to reform the system that perpetuates this atrocity

Nov 25, 2014 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I would like to express my profound consternation at the recent sentencing of two men to extremely long prison sentences, that must obviously have been aimed at shutting them out permanently from the rest of humanity, and condemning them to a life of misery and isolation from their loved ones as well as any meaningful activities to fulfil their lives.
The two offenders, are they not a product of our society, and entitled to the benefits of this society, which must have failed them in the first place to develop ethical standards in their lives?  Does not this society have a reciprocal obligation to at least try to reform them into inculcating standards of behaviour that would allow them to regain their place in their communities with the ability to contribute meaningfully to it?
I firmly believe that the system that commits these grave injustices should itself be redesigned to implement a corrective function within the penal organisation rather than a purely punitive one, which has been proven repeatedly to produce more hardened criminals.
No man, or group of men, has a right to permanently imprison another unless he takes on the responsibility of giving him ample opportunity and the wherewithal to reform his character.  Furthermore, when we denounce another human being without giving him this opportunity, we are admitting our own inability to effect such reform, even when we have him totally in our custody for a long period of time.
I hope that the relevant authorities in our country will see the wisdom of the above, and take the necessary steps to reform the very system that perpetuates this atrocity of condemning our fellow human beings to a fate worse than death.
Roy Paul

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