The article this week will look at punishment as a way of developing a society which is wellordered and consists of well-adjusted persons. The critical issues of restorative justice, the reintegration of prisoners into mainstream society and prison reform will be highlighted. 

“In order to protect the common good, the lawful public authority must exercise the right and the duty to inflict punishments according to the seriousness of the crimes committed. The State has the twofold responsibility to discourage behaviour that is harmful to human rights and the fundamental norms of civil life, and to repair, through the penal system, the disorder created by criminal activity. In a State ruled by law the power to inflict punishment is correctly entrusted to the Courts.”

The Church has an interesting view of punishment. It is not only to make the offender pay for his wrongdoing or make the victims of crime feel they have received justice for a wrong done to them.

Rather more importantly, it seeks to ensure that offenders understand and admit their errors or crime and seek to make amends for them by becoming productive well-adjusted positive contributors to the society and the common good. The offender must also repair the relationships that were damaged as a result of his deed.

“Punishment does not serve merely the purpose of defending the public order and guaranteeing the safety of persons; it becomes as well an instrument for the correction of the offender, a correction that also takes on the moral value of expiation when the guilty party voluntarily accepts his punishment.

There is a twofold purpose here. On the one hand, encouraging the re-insertion of the condemned person into society; on the other, fostering a justice that reconciles, a justice capable of restoring harmony in social relationships disrupted by the criminal act committed.”

Some persons might think that this is unrealistic, if not impossible. Further, many believe that too much attention should not be paid to the needs of prisoners or ex-offenders.

After all they have cost others much grief and in some instances their life and property. Many believe they are worthless, have lost their rights and the keys that are used to lock them in cells should be thrown away.

The Church’s position is different, the prisoner’s dignity as a person is to be protected.  “In this regard, the activity that prison chaplains are called to undertake is important, not only in the specifically religious dimension of this activity but also in defence of the dignity of those detained.

Unfortunately, the conditions under which prisoners serve their time do not always foster respect for their dignity; and often, prisons become places where new crimes are committed.

Nonetheless, the environment of penal institutions offers a privileged forum for bearing witness once more to Christian concern for social issues: ‘I was ... in prison and you came to me’ (Mt 25:35-36).”

In Trinidad and Tobago, previously the philosophy of the prison system was one of retribution, not restoration. With the retributive philosophy, all that was required were bars, bolts and “turnkeys” which served to keep individual offenders hidden away from the society, for the duration of his sentence. 

From a practical standpoint, it makes sense to focus on the rehabilitation of prisoners. Most inmates do return to the society. It is only a very small percentage who would get old and die in prison.

It therefore makes good common sense to invest in re-directing and re-tooling the mind and hands of the inmate as he prepares for his eventual release and re-entry. Rehabilitation is the key.

The prison system should be viewed to bring about the desired attitudinal shift in the inmates, so that upon release inmates could return to the society, willing and able to make a meaningful and productive contribution.

The approach that supports this is the restorative justice approach which according to the Final Report of the Cabinet Task Force on Prison Reform and Transformation (2002) “actively incorporates and integrates all stakeholders including the community, victims of crime, corporate society and penal agencies in the fight against crime and in the various strategies and initiatives implemented for the effective management of the offender within and without the prison population”

The Church does have a critical role to play in this area. In fact our local Church has done great work in this area, through the Catholic Commission for Social Justice (CCSJ).

The CCSJ implements a programme called “Walk Tall” at the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca which encourages inmates to think along the lines of making restoration and reparation to victims for crimes committed.

This is a 40-week programme whose objectives are four-fold: To create in participants a greater sense of self, of community, of God and of the social consequences of crime.

Through a number of intervention strategies involving trained resource personnel, such as a human resource manager, marriage and family therapists, and a career counsellor, inmates are encouraged to begin to acknowledge that crime has wide-ranging effects not only on victims and society but also on them.

The programme is also meant to identify those inmates who remain most vulnerable and who are more likely to be repeat offenders. It serves as a forerunner to the Half-Way House Programme to support those former inmates who may be destitute on their release.

The Half-Way House will be known as the Anthony Pantin Reintegration Centre. The underlying philosophy of the Half-Way House Programme is to further the formation and rehabilitation of some former inmates, to de-institutionalise them and to promote in them a sense of independence.

During this programme participants will receive assistance in finding employment and in re-establishing family and community bonds. We as a society also need to be prepared to receive and welcome former inmates back into society. 

Next week we continue to look at the issue of punishment.

Persons interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, can contact the Justice Desk, Archbishop’s House at 622-6680. Also on sale at the Justice Desk is Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching.