Sunday, May 17, 2015

Rehabilitation in our justice system

Ryan Ke
Section 1
Week 8

            In the article “I am a man with a heart,” Andrew details his life experiences with crime and incarceration despite being an excellent student. Andrew’s family fled Cambodia to the US as refugees when Andrew was only six years old. His parents were hardworking and emphasized the importance of education. However, Andrew got caught up in stealing, and has been in and out of juvenile hall and jail.

            This article was interesting to me mainly because it was shocking to hear that it was a possibility for Andrew to be deported. He has lived in America since he was six, and describes himself as being able to get along with any crowd. Still, because of his family background, he was threatened with being deported to a country he knew nothing about. From this article, it really seems that Andrew has changed through his faith and his family’s support. Yet, despite having many recommendation letters and being clean for a couple years, Andrew had an extremely hard time convincing the feds that he had rehabilitated. I realize that they are simply trying to ensure that a former criminal has truly rehabilitated before setting them free, but it seems too strict in this case. Do you think it is too difficult for a convict to prove rehabilitation? If yes, how could our justice system be improved in this respect?

This cartoon was amusing to me because it showed how difficult it can be for a convict to show rehabilitation. 

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