Amnesty to prisoners

There have been a number of appeals for the government to grant an amnesty to all those serving a prison sentence, to celebrate Malta's entry into the European Union on May 1. There has also been a strong dissenting voice in parliament.

I find that this issue is not being treated with the calm detachment that it deserves. The case is made that there are persons who are in prison because of the unfortunate circumstances in which they found themselves. That may be true, but does that mean that those criminals who do not fall in this category should ride to early freedom on the back of the others? Where is the logic in this argument?

It is also said that prisons, irrespective of what you may wish to call them, are not the right antidote to criminality. Again, that may be true, but is an amnesty a solution to this problem? Prison reform has nothing to do with amnesties. A case was mentioned of a person victim of a crime who was hard on criminals until his own son broke the law. I do not see this change in attitude as a sign of enlightenment but rather a consistent self-seeking attitude towards the issue of crime and punishment.

Those who equate justice with vengeance are wrong, though I do not deny that there are those who are interested more in vengeance than justice. Those who believe that all human beings are good, and that it is others who make them bad, are also wrong. The "others" are also human beings and how can one logically describe them also as "good"? Maturity demands that we assume responsibility for our own actions.

Amnesty involves forgiveness and this is a noble quality. However, let us not forget that effective forgiveness depends on repentance and atonement. An across-the-board amnesty flies in the face of this notion and could well create its own injustice.