by Harris Aliyu
In criminal justice system, the main goal of ‘punishment’ is to ensure deterrence, incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation. Therefore, on penal basis, retribution is said to be the ‘worst’ and the most aged form of punishment which demands ‘An eye for an eye, finger for a finger and a toe for a toe’. It therefore required the offenders to be punished equivalent to their crimes. And the purpose of incapacitation or incarceration; the restriction of offenders movement or liberty which causes physical and psychological pain in the offender is deemed to deter criminals and to prevent the future occurrence of crime.
PUNISHMENT AND CORRECTION
Punishment as defined by Webster online dictionary is ‘simply a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure while Correction as defined by same source is ‘the treatment and rehabilitation of offenders through a program involving penal custody’.
The term punishment as a means of combating crime in transition to correction is a renowned act of enforcing conformity to the norms and values of every society in the globe. Criminals who are subjected to any form of punishment are being rewarded for their crimes and for others to learn lessons from such penalty. Those who are sentenced to imprisonment must undergo several processes of rehabilitations and corrections in the penitentiary during their trial, so as to ensure that the offenders are in no position or less likely to commit further crimes when they are being put back in to the society.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR CHILD IS A CRIMINAL?
Crime is any act that is against the law committed by a mentally-sound individual, therefore your child can only be a criminal when he commits such act which is defined ‘criminal’ by the law and if he reached the maturity age.
For a child who is below the maturity line, his criminal acts is said to be a delinquency (unlawful behaviors committed by young people) instead of a crime and is required to be corrected rather than punished. And by aiming to disciple such individual who’s perceived juvenile by the law; you are providing cure to unconventional acts which is deliberate in nature of every society.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PUNISHMENT AND CORRECTION
The terms punishment and correction are identical in such a way that both are regarded as the basic measures taken by the Law in its struggle to create a crime free and a conformal society. Therefore, punishment and correction are distinguished as follows;
- The purpose of punishment is to inflict penalty on the offender while in correction is to rectify the wrongdoer.
- The attitude of punishment is ‘hostility and frustration’ while in correction is ‘love, compassion and concern’ for the offender’s future.
- The resulting emotion in the offender when punished is ‘fear and guilt’ but when corrected the result is ‘security’.
WHICH IS MORE APPROPRIATE TO AN OFFENDER?
Juveniles whom in their penal affairs the word ‘crime’ is substituted with ‘delinquency’ are perceived differently by the law, because they are being treated and rehabilitated in a separate correctional institution which is presumed to be leniently, rather than harshly as in penitentiary where habitual offenders of serious crimes are being penalized and incarcerated.
The Juvenile Correctional Institution was established purposely as a disciplinary organization, so as to treat, teach and rehabilitate underage offenders whose attitude and future could have been intensely tarnished and or influenced if sent to serve jail time in a penitentiary.
Correctional institutions is were juvenile offenders are being educated and disciplined so as to behave moderately and to fear committing crime in the future. Moreover all form of corporal and criminal punishment are moderate for a mentally-sound adult, but to first-time and underage offenders, correction is recommended.
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