Writing Project. B1/2nd. Term Carmen Angulo Snchez-Prieto.

About the crime and punishment and their alternatives

In a changing world, with a crisis not only economic but social and ethic, I think is a must and a challenge finding new and different ways of punishment and crime prevention. David Cayley, a Canadian author, maintains that imprisonment will sometimes be necessary in the interests of public safety, but it should be used only when diligent efforts at reform and repair have failed1. I agree with him but should have provided a more precise definition of what reform means. Its difficult and complex, because the society needs also repair. Sometimes, between repair and revenge there is a very thin edge. Society should think that the increase in crime is no stranger to herself. Should admit their own responsibility, direct or indirect, in this increase. An excessive polarization of wealth with the consequent social exclusion of the increasingly large "less fortunate" undoubtedly contribute to it. At the last time, has been a new interest in different sentencing ways; this practice is known like Community-based sentences. That is not a repressive or vengeful justice, but comprehensive and restorative. In Spain, a few years ago, was a judge very famous, the judge Calatayud. He preferred to obligate to finish the secondary education to a younger, rather than by sending him to jail. Their sentences were almost provocative but more and more judges who follow this line of action. They see the offender also as another victim and are creative, seeking reparation by way of prevention.
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Cayley, D. (1998). The expanding prison: The crisis in crime and punishment and the search for alternatives. House Of Anansi.
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