The use of rehabilitation as the dominant model for corrections Term Paper

The use of rehabilitation as the dominant model for corrections - Term Paper Example ce system that what goals to emphasize, what programs to offer, and what model to follow are issues being continuously debated upon, especially so that number of offenders is in continuous rise, bleeding off American taxpayers millions of dollars just to maintain correctional facilities. The irony of the picture, wherein the victims’ (mostly taxpayers) money is spent for their offenders (mostly unemployed), also illustrates the dilemma of corrections as to which should be emphasized: retribution or rehabilitation? The answer to this illustrates how one understands criminal justice. Meaning, what should be the primary consideration in choosing a model for corrections: Would it be political, financial, practical, legal or ethical considerations? In other words, what is ethical may not be politically advantageous, may be too expensive, may not be legal or may be too hard to achieve. But are these considerations justifiable? To think as such is a mockery of criminal justice, becau se as Sherman (1981) explains with certainty, criminal justice decisions are primarily moral decisions (as cited in Gold, 2012, p. 12). To render justice then is upholding what is right. Within this premise, this paper argues for rehabilitation as the dominant model for corrections for various reasons as discussed below Corrections are traditionally perceived to function primarily as an institution for the following four major goals. One is retribution – to justly punish offenders. Underlying this goal is the belief of ancient and biblical origin, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ (cited in Clear, Cole & Reisig, 2010, pp. 70-73), which means that every criminal offense deserves just punishment. Offenders should be punished according to the severity of their crime. Thus it would be unjust to give capital punishment to someone caught for simple misdemeanor, because the punishment is more severe than the crime committed. In the same way, it would be unjust to put simply on