Thursday 17 October 2013

When the shoe is on the other foot...


Stories like this one have always totally perplexed me. South African criminals are amazingly quite aware of their rights when the long arm of the law catches up with them.
I had a friend who worked for an organisation that fought for the rights of prisoners, and she was inundated by calls from the said prisoners to help them out when they felt their rights were being infringed upon in prisons.
Some lamented being moved to a prison far away from their families, yet they were in prison for murder - which is taking away other people's loved ones permanently.
Rights come with responsibilities, but these selfish, cruel people think when it comes to them, the system should bend over backwards to make their lives comfortable.
Meantime, who is making those they wronged comfortable? Criminals should know that they are locked up not because they are model citizens. They are there because they performed bad deeds, and bad deeds must be punished.
I'm not advocating for prison abuse, I'm just saying criminals should not end up looking more comfortable than the people they tormented before they got caught.