The Irish Legal System is Fair and Democratic - Discuss

Politics & Society

The Irish Legal System is Fair and Democratic - Discuss

Crime reflects one's material conditions, and that is why if we continue to have prisons as punishment in our legal system, it will never be fair nor democratic. Even the most despicable of criminals are victims to our systems, even if that wasn't the case, they will become victims to our legal system.

What does rotting in a cell for years on end accomplish, nothing. How can you reflect on your actions yet not be able to see the affect it has because you are so far removed from society? How are you meant to 'pick yourself up by your bootstraps' if you cannot access decent education or funds? How can you re-enter society after adjusting to an outside world for years on end? Where does one go after their sentence?

People naturally jump to the drastic end of the spectrum of crimes when you mention these facts. Rapists. And I find it amazing how people think that rapists are the ones in prison. When in reality rapists make up one of the smaller proportions of prison population in Ireland, via the Irish Prison Service. Rapists are often not sentenced, another fault of our current system.

A lot of people also believe that prison abolition means that rapists would get treated better than the victims, this simply would not be true, one of the largest parts of prison abolish is to provide services to the victim. As crime reflects material condition, all other systems would be changed along with prisons to ensure this.

Obviously, I am not suggesting to instantly abolish prisons. The best route to take would be to follow Finland's example and start open prisons and go from there. Allowing a majority of prisoners to attend schooling, and own vehicles. These prisons did not cause crime to rise, and Finland has now of the lowest prison populations in the world.

In short the legal system will never be fair or democratic without abolition.