Amos Yee – punishment versus correction

 

 

Offenders and criminals are rightly and expectedly punished by the rule of law when the law is broken. States need law to maintain order, security and rule of conduct for the proper functioning of a society. The rule of law provides a platform for people to coexist under a given set of rules that would make life bearable, orderly and to a great extent predictable.

 

The punishments meted out by the courts are measured and proportional to the crime committed. But before handling out a punishment, there is always the thought of corrective actions, to help the offenders not to commit the same offence again. But in some serious cases, the punishment is severe with no thought of reforming the offender. Death penalties are passed down in crimes where lives were taken or drug offences that are serious enough that corrective or reformative actions are found unnecessary.

 

So there are at least these two considerations when punishment are passed down, to correct and reform if possible, but if the crime is too serious, the court would do away with the corrective actions, and sentence the criminal to death.

 

In the Amos Yee’s case, it is not serious enough to want to just punish for the sake of punishment like serious crime. The thought is about reformation, about turning the boy offender around. And corrective actions can come in many shades and colours, from a pep talk, a warning, to reformative training and jail. What is then appropriate in the Amos Yee case would depend on how serious was the offence. In this particular case, I think many people have great differences in opinion. Some would rubbish this as the rant of a wayward youth and could simply be ignored. Some treated this very seriously and wanted the maximum punishment to be meted out. And the in betweens could vary between the two.

 

What is thus appropriate to be handed down to Amos Yee, a jail sentence or a long detention in a reformative centre? The prosecution is adamant on a long reformative training under detention and justifying it as reformative and corrective training. They are going to reform the boy.  The intent is so noble. Would it work? Would the boy be reformed after the stint in the reformative centre? Or would it lead to rebellion and harden the boy’s attitude towards authority?

 

Obviously a jail sentence would be just a punishment and would not do much good in correcting the boy. But would reformative training be more effective or be worse than a jail sentence? What’s next if the reformative training is ineffective and counter productive, recommend for an extension to keep the boy in detention again until he is reformed?

 

The effectiveness of reformative training for such a case is questionable.  No one can be assured that a reformative training would work and not to hurt or destroy the person under training. The result may be negative and just the opposite. This case would need the wisdom of mature adults to think through it carefully with the good of boy in mind. The corrective action or punishment must befit the severity of the offence.  What would a sincere and kind wise man or woman recommend for the good of the boy?

What would the people in the Kindness Movement recommend?