I would like to think that in a perfect criminal justice system a criminal could be both punished for his or her crime and yet have his or her dignity still upheld. The key words: in a perfect world. Today's society and criminal justice system is not perfect and there are flaws. I do not believe that a criminal's dignity is upheld in prison.
When it comes to dignity I always try to remember that every human is a unique individual. No matter how unique a person is, he or she is still human and all humans should be treated equal. That is a hard concept to grasp, especially when dealing with prisoners. A person is more than the crime he or she committed. Regardless or whether that person was right or wrong or innocent or guilty, that person is still an individual who deserves dignity and should be treated with dignity in prison. Not only do people deserve to have his or her dignity upheld, but Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Why then do we still hear of horrible stories in which a criminal's dignity is stripped away?
Is using electric cattle prods on humans dignified? Is shackling a prisoner to death dignified? Is spraying prisoners with pepper and tear gas for banging on a door dignified? I believe there are many factors that play into dignity in prisons. First, there are many types of crimes with varying degrees of punishment. There are non-violent crimes, violent crimes, crimes against other humans, crimes against society as a whole, crimes that strip away other peoples' dignity, and many more. The point is a crime is a crime, but should all criminals be punished the same? How can someone with a non-violent drug offense be treated the same way a someone who murdered his or her entire family?
Not only are there a number of different crimes, but there are different criminals. There are criminals who are remorseful, criminals who regret what he or she did, criminals who have no regrets, criminals who are not remorseful for his or her crimes, and even criminals who believe he or she is innocent. Should they all be treated the same? The answer is no they should not be; however, they all should be treated humanely- with dignity and respect.
I'm sure everyone has heard the phrase, "one person can ruin it for everyone." Not that it is that pretty common, but I feel like it is what occurs in prisons. There are some prisoners who are well behaved in prisons and work towards a better future, but there are still other who have no desire to better their lives. They join prison gangs, abuse other inmates, smuggle drugs into prisons, and in general just do not follow the rules. It has to be hard for prison employees to work with all these different types of prisoners- to have to distinguish between those who are compliant and those who are non-compliant. To have to determine who is really trying to make a better a future for ones self and who is just trying to look for an easy way out. I feel like often times the abuse that occurs in prisons occurs because guards take the easy way out- they do not try to distinguish between those who are compliant and non-complaint. Often times they automatically jump to extreme measures and inflict cruel punishments on prisoners- punishment that strips the criminals' dignity. Like I said, in a perfect world I would like to see the criminal justice system uphold criminals' dignity while still punishing criminals for his or her crimes, but today's society is far from perfect.
I really like this statement, Jess: "A person is more than the crime he or she committed." I, too, hope for a future where there is a difference between proper punishment and, well, everything else we see in the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, I feel as though as a society, we are heading in the opposite direction.
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