What sort of closure would one get after watching your father's murderer get executed, or your daughter's rapist? And would you feel he got what he deserved? Could you go on with your life without feeling you needed more? You would know that he never got the chance to really think about it and regret it.

If it was me, I would rather see him suffer. I would feel better knowing he did not get the easy way out with a quick death. I would want to see him locked up for the rest of his life in a small, dirty cell without windows or privacy. I'd want to see him locked up in a horrible place. He could never be released because the chances of him coming out as a better person I think, most times, are slim.

If we go back - could we prevent the offences to happen in the first place? Whose fault is it - the criminal personally? The parents? The community he lived in? Did he just wake up one day and decided he wanted to kill someone, or did he hate somebody so much he thought this person deserved to die? Where do such thoughts come from? A normal person, like you and me, might have it in us to passionately hate someone, but that doesn't mean we have it in us to also kill. These people need help, or they will have to be kept away from society for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately we can't afford that.

In Sweden, where I'm from, the prisons are very nice. Struggling people does not mind getting locked up; they will have a better life in there than in a poor council estate. Here, we have the problem of people coming from unfortunate countries to purposely commit a crime for the sake of going to prison.

But we spend time and effort on the prisoners, we give them the care they need to get better - to learn that what they did was wrong. We try to sort them out so that when they get released, they don't relapse into crime.

This is a good idea, and most probably the right thing to do, but does it work? Do they get better, or is it something that just can't be fixed? And would you be a good enough person to be fine with this punishment if the crime committed involved you, or your family? I know I wouldn't. I would hate knowing that my hard earned tax money went towards someone who didn't deserve it.

The easy way out would be to execute the criminals which seems beyond any help. If this person could not learn respect and how to coexist in our society, does he really deserve a second chance?

Learn more about this author, Michelle Fundin.
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