An eye for an eye, corporal punishment, forced labor, exile, fines, and imprisonment. These are all punishments mankind has thought of and carried out throughout history; sometimes to enact justice and sometimes to prevent further crimes. While increased awareness of human rights has mostly narrowed these punishments down to fines and imprisonment, is there no more room for improvement? Is our criminal justice system, focused on punishment, truly beneficial to society? Is our current criminal justice system truly just?

From a viewpoint of efficiency, our prison system is too inefficient. Operating prisons solely for the sake of imprisonment not only wastes tax money but also removes the potential economic contribution by the inmates after their release. Instead of seclusion and punishment, the main objective of prisons should be rehabilitation. Reforming criminals through therapy and education decreases rates of recidivism — the chance of a convict to re-offend. This is demonstrated clearly through cases in Norway and the US. In Norway, penitentiaries serve to rehabilitate criminals and attempt to educate the convict to prevent further offenses, resulting in a recidivism rate of about 20% within two years after incarceration. On the other hand, in the US —  a country with dozens of supermax prisons — it is evident the main goal is to seclude and punish the criminals through harsh conditions. This results in a recidivism rate of 68% within three years. There may be other factors attributing to these differing rates, but from the statistics alone, making rehabilitation the focus of prisons is without a doubt much more beneficial to society compared to the current alternative. 

Furthermore, it is hard to say that the responsibility of the crime lies solely on the perpetrator. Ultimately, the criminal is the one to blame, but to prevent and reduce similar crimes, we have to know that we, as a society, also share the blame. Research in criminology and psychology has revealed that criminals tend to share common circumstances. Those who lacked education had a higher chance of being led to a road of crime. Those who lacked care or were subject to childhood abuse were more likely to develop antisocial behaviors and deviant urges, sometimes expressed through violent crimes. Although one can argue that not everyone becomes a criminal and it is ultimately an individual choice, we as a society failed criminals by not giving them a chance when they needed it most. The criminal may be the one who committed the crime, but society’s apathetic attitude is what created the criminal. Considering this, is locking up criminals and subjecting them to harsh conditions truly moral and just? With every crime and a new criminal, we should aim to rehabilitate and help the offender realize that crime isn’t the only answer.

In Korea, there is a popular adage:  “fixing a cowshed after the cow goes missing”. This saying is a fitting metaphor for our current criminal justice. Instead of finding ways to prevent the same tragedy from happening, we’re needlessly punishing offenders when the damage to the victims is already done. Granted, seeing a despicable criminal being punished by a harsh sentence and being subjected to substandard living conditions feels like justice, but that does not stop other crimes from happening. By rehabilitating criminals and focusing on the root causes of their crimes — may it be domestic abuse, psychological instability, or simply lack of education — we can give criminals a second chance that society failed to give in the first place, as well as give an assurance to victims that no more people will suffer as they had. Now, wouldn’t that bring true closure to both the perpetrator and the victim?