Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Re: Criminals should lose all rights, Sept 21 letter.
Does A. Abbott see things only as black and white, and good and bad?
In this letter he says prisoners should be denied all rights and privileges. Is he such a good person that he himself has never done wrong?
New Zealand has a very high proportion of adults in prison, well ahead of most other Commonwealth countries (even greater than Communist China).
A. Abbott also uses the word criminal to cover all, dehumanising and tarring all individuals with the same brush.
The convicted may range from social outcasts to mentally disturbed, troubled, misdirected, unlucky, or maybe plain angry souls; perhaps some even wrongly judged and completely innocent.
I feel for the victims of crimes and understand public fear of released ex-detainees reoffending. But robbing the wrongdoers further of their rights would be a great injustice.
Better to focus energy on reasons why so many need to be imprisoned, and how it can work best in preparing wrongdoers to adjust to society on release.
BOB HUGHES