The Ideal and Actual Roles of Correction, Essay Example

The role and identification of corrections in criminal justice has been changed and modified constantly throughout the human history. In the contemporary world, prisons are the most commonly employed way of punishing criminals for breaking the law. However, the actual role of imprisonment differs from its ideal function, due to the fact that it has never been balanced or perfected.

Imprisonment, as a way of punishing, can serve for multiple goals and have several roles. The first, and one of the most important roles, is to separate an individual from the society, in order to deter the criminal from repeating the crime. Prisons are also seen as a revenge tool, with the help of which individuals are paid back for the harm, pain, and troubles they have caused to the society.”Retribution refers to just desserts: the idea that people who engage in criminal behavior deserve to be punished. This is an important purpose of most sentences” (MacKenzie, 2006). On the other hand, the ideal role of such method of correction is to psychologically and emotionally reform a person, in order for him to be able to return to normal life and continue benefiting the society. For this purpose many prisons exercise schooling and job training to help criminals rehabilitate. Ideally, people who are released from correctional institutions should easily find a job to earn for a living, provide for a family, and lead a decent life, as far as, supposedly, they have paid their debt to the society and have a right to exercise the same benefits and acquire the same opportunities as everyone else. Corrections are supposed to show individual a path to normal life within a community and provide him with a guarantee of health care and social protection.

Though the actual roles of corrections are far from being ideal, we have to do everything possible to make them real and apply them to real life situations.

References

MacKenzie, D. (2009). What Works in Corrections. Cambridge University Press