For the past month of July, an inquiry trial in Singapore, for inhumane and torturous acts of 3 prison inmates committed onto one cellmate, resulted in heavy penalties for the perpetrators.
TodayOnline.com : Strong words, caning and jail for trio.
The 3 inmates were found guilty of sadistic and degrading acts committed unto another inmate sharing the same cell as them. Causing grievous hurt, forcing oral sex and sodomy to another inmate. All 3 were given sentences of each between 16-19 years jail term and 16-22 strokes of the cane.
It was mentioned in various media that during the trial, the victim did tell the court that pleas from the victim inmate fell upon deaf ears of the prison wardens when he was tortured. The beatings went on for 8 days before he submitted into committing degrading acts for his aggressors.
The 3 guilty inmates were previously jailed for committing thefts, robbery, causing hurt, rioting and juvenile crime. All 3 of them were in their early twenties, doing time in a place where supposedly to rehabilitate them for re-insertion into society again.
However, the concept of doing jail time for the purpose of rehabilitation and society re-acceptance seemed to be flawed here. For 8 days under prison supervision, constant battering go unseen. Oral sex and sodomy to be un-noticed by prison wardens. One has to question if inmates have such a luxury of privacy that these crimes can go unseen.
Are the prisons in Singapore meant to rehabilitate or to further degenerate the inmates? Are wardens Captain of Lives or merely "doing time" for a monthly pay cheque? Does the prison services require a third party watchdog to audit their practices?
Given proper supervision and guidance, these young men could have done their time over in less than a few years for their previous crimes and be out of prison as matured men, knowing differences between right and wrong and able to serve society again. But instead, doing time for them turned them into degenerates. To add an extended jail term of 16-19 years and expect rehabilitation given similar prison environment, one has to wonder the possibility of it happening.
Young men, whom have a possibility of a future after their jail term, now faces a heftier term due to crimes committed while in prison. By the time they are released, they'd be nearing their forties. Without much experience and skills, with the stigma of an ex-con, will they be accepted into society again? And if these ex-cons cannot get jobs for their own sustenance, will they turn to crime again?
Today is 28th July 2009
Time now is 10:29 hrs
Jailterm is a good deterrence for youths against crime.
But for those already in jail, proper guidance and rehabilitation must be done to give these inmates hope and deter them from a life of crime and longer jail term.
