There are far more effective punishments for criminals than prison.

Let the punishment fit the crime. (proverb)

From the beginning of the world people have been committing crimes. And it’s obvious that criminals should be punished. Besides it Leonardo da Vinci said, “He who doesn’t punish evil commands it to be done”. That’s why our society created different laws that help us to control other people and ourselves. But in the most cases imprisonment provoke the increasing of criminality, because the behavior of criminals become worse and they aren’t taught anything. It is high time to look through our laws and insert an amendments into the laws, may be there are some new more effective methods of reeducation. But would they be objective and justified or not?

On the one hand, the goddess of justice should be “blind” that means to be equal to everybody. It’s natural that different people are influenced with the same punishment differently. For this reason moral punishment is not appropriate to all crimes. Sometimes it can even kill the person. That’s why using such a kind of punishment we should also use the pieces of psychologist’s advice. Imprisonment is the most common way to isolate dangerous criminals such as murderers, terrorists from the society, to reeducate them. But what should we do with robbers, smugglers, drunk-drivers, shoplifters, burglars? Will the prison or fines change them?

On the other hand, sometimes imprisonment becomes a useless punishment. Government only spends a lot of money to hold criminals in prisons. In the most cases sending someone to prison couldn’t change the criminal situation in the society. In other words, releasing criminals from jail police couldn’t hold them from committing new crimes. That’s why more often judges use alternative punishments. For examples burglars could helps their “victims” about the house, person injured from the drunk-driver can be driven by him for some period of time.

Some way or other, I agree that policemen should use not only standard punishments but also alternative ones. It could be different help to victims, fines and material help. The best solution is to combine moral punishment with other kinds. But we have to remember that any kind of punishment should reeducate the person but not humiliate her or him. Building prisons we should not copy the realities of our hearts!

My education

Education's purpose is to replace

an empty mind with an open one.

Malcolm Forbes

My education began at home. I was taught by my grandmother how to read and write. That’s why my first days at primary school were not the tragedy for me. I adapted quickly. Most of all, I remember my friends and the time when we had a lot of fun together.

At the age of ten, I went to the local comprehensive school. It was co-educational, because I preferred to study with boys, not only with girls, although there were occasions when having boys in the class was more of a distraction than an aid to learning. I excelled academically and did not show off too much with it. It helped me to be popular not only among excellent pupils, but also among non-achievers.

At the age of fifteen, I passed my O levels, all with an A grade. It was high time I started to prepare for my A levels. I agonized over two years what university and what profession to choose. During my studying at the secondary school I dreamed about the profession of pharmaceutist, but after all I came to the conclusion that my future was inseparable from studying of the languages. It was my own decision and parents supported me. My last two years at school passed very quickly. I didn’t take part in many extra-curriculum activities, because I was not fond of dancing or singing, but sometimes we organized school-parties for our teachers and ourselves.

The standard of teaching was extremely high in our school. That’s why having A levels was not a problem for me. Besides the process of studying our teachers were interested in our moral upbringing. In some situations it was very helpful.

After finishing school with the gold medal I could enter our university without exams. I was living away from home for the first time. It was difficult not to have my parents around, but now I can fend for myself.

If I could do it all again, would I do anything differently? If I were back at secondary school, I would like to have more extra-curricular activities. I have never regretted the decision to enter this university and this department. And I hope my education will help me in my future life.