Prisons has intrigued me for as long as I can remember. I
was fearful of them when I was little and as I grew older I became more curious
than scared. They are within our society but just removed enough for us to
forget about them in our day to day lives. Actually it is easy to never think
about them at all. They have been in our society forever and when we think
about abolishing prisons immediately we imagine them just running around beside
us. That would obviously not be the case. There are many restrictions to this
idea. In the Kristina Williams web post, I found it very interesting and
exciting that the communities took justice into their own hands. I am finding
myself questioning my reliance on the structures in power to solve the
problems. I, by no means, want to become a vigilantly superhero and fight crime
by night. Although, it is getting me thinking about what we could do when a
survivor of sexual assault does not want to go to the police but cannot bear to
think that her perpetrator is getting away with it.
In the Williams piece, a group of women went to the perpetrators
work place and shamed him. Now he knows what he did was wrong as well as his coworkers
knowing what he had done. Does shaming people get the job done? Should we do
back to the times where we use whipping posts or cucking stools, not actually
harming them but putting them on display for their communities to see.
I agree with the idea that prisons are not always the answer
and I understand that sometimes people come out worse and with better criminal connections
than when they went in. It just does not sit right with me that they could not
suffer at all for causing someone else so much suffering. An eye for an eye
leaves the whole world blind but there cannot be no serious consequences. There
are some people who needed the money so they robbed a convenience store and those
people, although they harmed the store, insurance would cover that. That type
of criminal definitely deserves some help and compassion. I draw the line when
a person commits a crime onto another person that harms them at the time and/or
has lasting impacts on them. That cannot be amended with a well worded note and
some volunteer hours.
For the most part, I agree with the idea that one should face the consequences of his/her actions. That said, I question whether or not prisons are the correct medium through which we impose such consequences. The purpose of prisons was first and foremost originally (and perhaps for some still is) about reform—reforming perpetrators and criminals in order to reintegrate them into society. But today, we use the prison system to primarily punish. I do not think there is one simple answer for how we should deal with sexual assault (and other crimes), but there appears to be little to no effort being put in to change the attitudes and behaviours of guilty perpetrators. Furthermore, I feel there is more of an emphasis put on perpetrators after the fact rather than changing the (rape) culture before the assault takes place—this doesn’t only happen in the cases of sexual assault. Why is it that our society is so quick to punish in comparison to how slow we are to take preventative measures? An answer, I think, lies in how we tend to put the blame on the individual instead of the community, society, and culture they grew up in. We do not want to believe there is a problem with the environment criminals are brought up in because then it means we, as a society, have failed. With that said, I think we need more preventative measures in place thus making vigilantes, vigilante groups, and prisons significantly less necessary. We should be putting our efforts towards preventing crimes rather than punishing criminals who are the results of the societal culture within which they were brought up.
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