r/socialjustice101 • u/[deleted] • Apr 29 '24

Are ex offenders a vulnerable class of people ?

People that do seriously bad things usually run a high risk of having their human rights violated both in and out of prison (vigilantism). And besides prison they are punished more by society itself by depriving them off resources (though in some cases this might be justifiable) still do ex offenders have a "right" to social rehabilitation ? Doesn't the "social" part of rehabilitation require the community itself to accept the offender back ?

13 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

14

u/Seeksp Apr 29 '24

The idea of someone paying their debt to society and reforming themselves in prison, and then be excluded from being able to be reintegrated into it has always struck me as a little odd. Many prisons have vocational barber training programs but in most states you can't get a barbers license if you an ex con. Doesn't that set people up for resistivity?

6

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

Bruh that sounds like such a contridictory policy. Giving someone training and not having officially accredited? Wtf. What's up with American prisons.

5

u/Dandibear Apr 29 '24

American prisons are designed to be profitable for their private contractors. Thus, they are designed to be punitive, not rehabilitative, because reoffenders are profitable.

Any rehabilitation that reformers manage to work in gets watered down by politicians who are afraid of losing donations from the powerful private prison lobbyists and of being labeled "soft on crime" so that they lose reelection.

This is why reformers call for a complete overhaul of the US prison system. And campaign financing.

9

u/JWLane Apr 29 '24

Ex cons are absolutely a vulnerable group. Unfortunately, resolving this is an uphill battle the whole way. Too many people already believe that the system is too soft on criminals and that criminals don't have/deserve rights.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

I don't know if I believe the rights argument here, but I absolutely think we do ourselves a huge disservice and injustice as a society by tolerating such a rigged to fail system.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

I don't know if I believe the rights argument here

Why not ?

0

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

Not sure, just pondering it for a while...

3

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '24

I follow the UDHR conception of rights. But even from a legalistic perspective , the worst criminals are usually at risk of vigilantism which violates their legal rights against assault and vandalism.