Crime and Punishment
Like human constructs, there is a flaw in the current ideology concerning punishment that is easy to spot, but nearly impossible to rectify. I usually don’t think about it that much, but watching Alias tonight brought it to mind. The flaw is this: those already repentant may be punished without need. In this case, I was thinking of Sydney’s mother, an ex-terrorist who turned herself in, apparently in an attempt to mend her ways. So far, she seems to be one of the good guys, but they still have her locked up, and let her out only once a week for exercise. Why is this treatment necessary? All of the reasons I can think of don’t meet the muster: because she needs to suffer in retribution, can’t be let off lightly, or needs to serve as an example to those considering acts of terrorism. Doesn’t it seem like if someone renounces their evil ways they should be forgiven? What benefit does it give anyone to punish those who don’t need it? That just seems unfair.
Possibly relevant posts:
- Life sucks! (2/27/2003)
- Election and other evil notions (8/4/2001)
- Wolfram and Hart (3/1/2007)