Inconsistencies?

A few days ago, one of Puerto Rico's national's newspapers printed a news article related to a warning made by the Ñeta organization - "Asociación Pro Derechos y Rehabilitación del Confinado" (Association for Rights and Rehabilitation of Prisoners). This organization was created in 1981 by an inmate to protect himself and other inmates from gangs inside prisons. However, its name suggests another thing.

The warning made was toward criminals out in the streets who have brought to daylight their "business" with other criminals, i.e., usually related to gang wars or drug debts. The problem: they are taking innocent people down with them. So part of the solution that Ñeta is proposing when sending this warning is that once those criminals are prosecuted and imprisoned, they will "apply their internal regulations" to all these people. After I read this article, I couldn't help but wonder: is this really what Puerto Rico needs right now? Is this going to end criminal activity? I don't think so.

I spent last semester in a Seminar (as part of my LL.M. studies) dedicated to Retributivism in Criminal Law. We studied how the whole prison system in America has become something opposite to what it was supposed to be. The prison system was created in the late 1800's to reform the types of punishment that existed, i.e., torture and corporal punishment. However, some suggest that it has turned into something worse. Professor James Gilligan (he was co-teaching the course) has studied and written various books on how prisons instead of rehabilitating or helping criminals, is making more criminals and generating more violence. Furthermore, studies put the U.S. as the no. 1 country in imprisonment rates: 1 out 100 people are behind bars. But has this brought criminality down? No, it has not. 

For me it is clear, that more imprisonment is not the answer. Neither is having the Ñetas take justice into their own hands. The solution, I believe, lies with rehabilitation of the criminal, as the name of their organization suggests. The Government needs to invest time and resources in fomenting the rehabilitation of convicts and helping them back into society so they can be better individuals. And this is not because two or three people believe in this; this is because the Constitution of Puerto Rico has this as a Constitutional mandate. What is happening that we have not put this into practice yet? First, we look to the U.S. criminal system. And secondly, politicians need to sell the "Mano Dura" and the War against crime to win elections. So until we as a nation recognize the power behind rehabilitation and the mechanisms to implement it, crime rates will continue increasing.

I recommend reading Gilligan's book: Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic. http://www.amazon.com/Violence-Reflections-National-James-Gilligan/dp/0679779124

Here is the link to the news article published in El Nuevo Día.
http://www.elnuevodia.com/netashacenadvertenciaagatilleros-1090033.html