Re: I still don't see the realtionship to guilt - Edit 2
Before modification by Burr at 05/03/2010 11:33:16 PM
I guess if you assume the only reason to imprison is to rehabilitate them it might make some sort of sense but the justice system does more then that. The victims and the families of the victims are ask to not seek their own justice and to allow the court system to seek it for them. It isn't just to keep them from doing it again.
The responsibility of the victims not to seek revenge is no different from their responsibility not to break any other law. It has nothing to do with how the justice system should treat the prisoner. Otherwise, if you are referring more to the victim's rehabilitation, then you are just changing the perspective, not the question. So let it be the victim who needs rehabilitation before the prisoner is released. For every prisoner there is (or should be) a victim. So you still end up making educated or uneducated guesses about how< rehabilitated the victim must be for it to become practical or ethical to release the prisoner.