Introduction
A crime is a crime no matter how it is committed or who commits it. People who indulge in criminal activities should pay for the crime they have committed. This does not necessarily mean sentencing them to jail.
Discussion
Women who are non-violent offenders should not be treated differently from their male counterparts. Though most women who indulge in crime, at times do it to provide for their children, it is not enough reason for them to be treated differently. This is because women who indulge in any kind of offenses are generally not a good influence on their children, neither are they an asset to the community. This means that they should not be allowed to access their children or become part of the community until after they have fully reformed.
Research has shown that most people who are first-time offenders, sentenced for a short time and then freed, are usually the same people who are arrested a second time and sentenced for committing even worse crimes. This shows that jails do not in any way reform criminals but instead, make them worse than they were before imprisonment. Due to these reasons, non-violent women offenders should either be put in rehabilitation centers where they can truly get reformed. In addition, they could be assigned to probation such that they will always have someone monitoring their activities.
It would be better to put women offenders in a community-based program where they can receive counseling on an individual basis. The finest programs merge supervision and other services to handle an array of aspects that female offenders require, in an extremely structured and secure surrounding where each one is accountable for their actions. Community service in form of probation can also be beneficial. This could be achieved by allowing women to spend time feeding the hungry and homeless or reading stories to children with terminal illnesses in hospitals. These activities reach and enhance their emotions, which would eventually enable them to transform their habits.
The whole point of taking all these measures is to make these women become better mothers. Therefore, even if their children are taken away from them, they would still get them back once they have fully reformed. Children born to mothers who are in such rehabilitation programs should be put under foster care until their mothers can take care of them without them posing a risk to their well-being. This does not in any way violate the mother’s rights because they still have a chance to be with their children once they are fully reformed. These programs are effective and are meant to safeguard the maternal roles since they are done with the interest of both the mother and the child at heart.
Conclusion
Jail has never been the best place to reform wrongdoers and therefore, should not be taken as the sole option of transforming wrongdoers and achieving moral uprightness. With this in mind, all governments should be encouraged to decrease the number of jail facilities and instead, increase the rehabilitation centers. If this is done, there might be a possibility of there being fewer criminals since the aim of these measures will be to reform rather than to punish criminal offenders.