Qualitative MNIST Experiments

little to resolve the problem. All over the world Correctional Centres are established to serve as rehabilitative and reformatory institutions with the goal of reorientation and reforming inmates so they would come out as useful members of the society. However, the Nigerian correctional centres have failed to attain this purpose but instead harden inmates by subjecting them to horrible and degrading conditions.

Despite the shortcomings of the then Prison Service, it is laudable to applaud the tremendous feat of the government on the introduction of the new Correctional Service Act which not only changed the name from Prison to Correctional Centres but also made provision for the use of Restorative Justice in the country. This is a huge stepping stone for Restorative Justice practitioners as the Correctional Service Act has now adopted a process of custodial and non-custodial approach giving room for restoration. However, the law should not only be made but seen done by a rapid implementation.

Restorative Justice shines a light on humanity by realising that offenders, especially first-time offenders and juvenile offenders are often victims of themselves or of attempts to impress friends and in situations like that, rather than creating room for recidivism and re-offending, it is important to shed light on their non-complexities as they need help to become better versions of themselves. When offenders go into the correctional facilities with little or no opportunity for rehabilitation and education, they come out worse than they were when they entered, thereby becoming more susceptible to committing worse crimes than their first.

3.1.3 Retributive Justice

Buddhist Dhammapada mentions retribution as following bad acts, and the Hindu Bhagavadgita ties retribution to bad karma.

Most legal scholars agree that restorative and retributive justice elements coexisted for centuries in justice systems that recognized the value of victims and their recovery from harm perpetuated by offenders. In 451–450 bce, the Law of Twelve Tables was drafted by a committee of Roman judges. Those laws signaled the end of private justice achieved through blood feuds by confirming compensation as the accepted method of justice in ancient Rome. In the Twelve Tables, restitution was the sanction of choice for most crimes, and victim retaliation was tolerated only when attempts to obtain restitution had failed. In many respects, the Twelve Tables indicated the beginning of state-involved justice.

The collapse of the Roman Empire led to a reassertion of private justice in the 5th century ce. British rulers noted problems with relying on private justice and tried to remedy the situation by issuing successive legal codes, such as Aethelberht I‘s laws in the early 7th century. By the time of the Norman conquest in 1066, Anglo-Saxon justice had been successfully restored to a system that typically involved payment of a wergild (or wergeld) to compensate victims or their families for the harms they suffered. The wergild system reduced reliance on private vengeance, because victims or their families could expect restitution, and private revenge was undesirable because such vengeance had often been met with additional violence. Wergilds were paid to the victims or their families, and more serious injuries meant paying a higher wergild.

The highest wergild was paid for homicide, the smallest for injuries that healed quickly, such as bruises.

Around 1116 England‘s Henry I penned his Leges Henrici, which redefined offenses as crimes against the king or government and thus shifted the focus of justice away from concern for victims. Instead of harming victims, crimes came to be viewed as transgressions against an amorphous ―king‘s peace.‖ By declaring himself the true

―victim‖ of crimes, Henry shifted compensation to the crown and began the erosion of restorative schemes. Over time, restoration was relegated to sporadic efforts fashioned by creative counsel, and other justice philosophies such as deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retribution moved to the forefront. Because deterrence was not formally described until the 18th century and rehabilitation did not achieve a following until the 19th, restoration was initially replaced by retribution and

incapacitation (which was essentially achieved through execution or maiming owing to the lack of detention facilities).

As the British government began to control more and more of the justice system, retribution became even more important as a sentencing philosophy. Part of that transformation was due to attempts by the crown to monopolize financial penalties, but other changes sprang from the inability of the system to include adequate consideration of the victim as more than a mere target of crime. Instead, victims were left to rely on the civil courts for their compensation, and offenders were fined or punished for whatever level of guilt and blameworthiness they had displayed during their crimes. By sentencing offenders for the culpability they possessed or appeared to possess and then allowing victims to sue for whatever damages were fitting, the justice system was able to create a consistent schema.

Victims‘ concerns eroded over time until the system was completely offender-centred.

By the mid-1800s, a few critics had begun calling for the reinstatement of restitution, claiming that it was important for victims, but retribution remained the dominant philosophy. Owing in part to the victims‘ rights movement launched in the 1970s, the justice system began to incorporate restorative justice initiatives. Although those initiatives have been successful with juveniles and in certain types of cases, retribution is still employed in serious cases.

Retribution as a philosophy

Retribution appears alongside restorative principles in law codes from the ancient Near East, including the Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2050 bce), the Laws of Eshnunna (c. 2000 bce), and the better-known Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 bce). In those legal systems, collectively referred to as cuneiform law, crimes were considered violations of other people‘s rights. Victims were to be compensated for the intentional and unintentional harms they suffered, and offenders were to be punished because they had done wrong.

Retribution is based on the concept of lex talionis that is, the law of retaliation. At its core is the principle of equal and direct retribution, as expressed in Exodus 21:24 as ―an eye for an eye.‖ Destroying the eye of a person of equal social standing meant that one‘s own eye would be put out. Some penalties designed to punish culpable behaviour by individuals were specifically tied to outlawed acts. Branders who used their skills to remove slave marks from runaway slaves, for example, had their hands amputated.

No other punishment philosophy gives so much importance to actus reus (a guilty act) and mens rea (a guilty state of mind). Under retribution, both elements of the crime must be present before punishment can be imposed. In addition, offenders may be punished only for the guilty acts they actually commit; those who plan a murder but succeed only in wounding a victim, for example, should not be punished as harshly as those who actually carry out the murder.

Under retributive justice schemes, it is also important that offenders actually be guilty of the crime for which a penalty has been imposed. True deterrence doctrine, according to the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, allows for the punishment of innocent individuals if doing so would serve a valuable societal function (e.g., creating and maintaining an image that crime is detected and punished so that others are deterred from crime). That idea is repugnant to retributionists, who believe that punishment should be meted out only to those who have broken laws. The value of retribution cannot be cheapened by using it to compensate for inadequacies of the justice system.

Retribution also forbids the punishment of offenders who cannot be held responsible for their actions. Insane or intellectually disabled individuals, for example, should not be penalized for acts that result from mental illness or disability. In addition, acts that are truly accidental, as well as those committed by children, are not subject to the same punishment as those committed by adults who possess criminal intent. The reasoning is simple when viewed through the lens of retributive theory. If individuals do not or cannot form mens rea (i.e., they cannot freely choose how they act), they do not deserve to be punished for their actions. As in the time of Hammurabi, however, victims are entitled to damages, because causing harm even in the absence of intent carries the obligation of restoring one‘s victims.

Under retribution, it is improper to allow guilty individuals to go unpunished. Because punishment must be deserved and follow culpable actions, it is inappropriate to deny individuals the consequences of their actions. In some respects, punishment is something that individuals ―earn‖ when they exercise their free will in an unacceptable manner. Here again, deterrence doctrine differs from retribution, because true deterrence allows offenders whose skills are needed by the community to be spared sanctions. Utilitarianism‘s overall goal is deterrence, which allows pardoning guilty parties if doing so is somehow better for the community as a whole.

Punishing offenders also restores balance to society and satisfies society‘s need or desire for vengeance. Offenders have misused society‘s benefits and have thus gained an unethical advantage over their law-abiding counterparts. Retributive punishment removes that advantage and tries to restore balance to society by validating how individuals ought to act in society. In some respects, punished individuals undergo a restricted form of rehabilitation.

Punishing criminals for their crimes reminds others in society that such conduct is not appropriate for law-abiding citizens, and the offenders themselves realize they have done wrong and deserve to be punished.

Criticisms of retribution

Of course, no punishment theory is without its critics. Many of those who criticize retribution argue that the philosophy is outdated. As societies become more civilized, they should outgrow the need or desire for revenge. Others note that punishing criminals just because they have acted inappropriately does not address any underlying issues that may have led to the crimes in the first place. Some offenders need treatment rather than punishment; without treatment, the cycle of crime will continue unabated.

Other critics note that it is not feasible to establish a satisfactory scale of punishments for crimes. Even if such a scale could be developed, it would probably fail to consider offenders‘

differing roles and motivations in committing crimes. Yet such considerations are important to retributionists, given their focus on deserved sanctions rather than punishment for its own sake.

Finally, a few critics note that doing unto others what they have done unto you is not as fair as it may initially seem. The victim suffered only the injury, but the offender must suffer both the injury and the anxiety of waiting for the injury to be imposed as punishment.