January 18, 2012 2:51 PM
Society has longed grappled with how best to treat criminals: Do we punish them? Rehabilitate them? And for how long should ex-cons pay for their mistakes?
It's a conversation that's at the core of Redemption Inc. Host Kevin O'Leary believes people who have run into trouble with the law should also get a fair shot at re-integrating into society after paying their dues.
"You break the law, you pay your time, you should get a second chance," O'Leary said.
It's a view shared by Jeanne Woodford, a California warden who ran California's San Quentin State Prison for five years in the late 1970s and early 80s.
"I believe in rehabilitation. I believe in the science of corrections, and doing what works to improve public safety," she told CBC Radio's Michael Enright on The Sunday Edition.
Too much of a focus on punitive action does little to help anyone, she said.
As the director of the non-profit lobbying group Death Penalty Focus, Woodford opposes retributive punishment, especially the kind that sends people to death row.
Not only is capital punishment costly, Woodford argued, but "it doesn't make us safer -- there's no evidence that it's a deterrent."
Woodford said the US $4 billion spent in California on capital punishment since 1978 "could be better spent solving unsolved crimes in the state such as homicide," noting that 46 per cent of homicides in California go unsolved, as do 56 per cent of rape cases.
"The science behind corrections says that the best way to prevent crime, to have less victimization, is to solve crime."
Photo credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Lam
