Is Justice Absolute
Is justice absolute?
Justice in itself isn’t always just; it’s just a lid put on issues so we can close it, seal it off and chuck it away: we can ‘move on’. People say justice has been achieved when the bad guy goes to jail, but this isn’t so; justice just means someone pays for the crime. The innocent die and the innocent grieve. Justice is a ripple effect, forever taking its toll, and it is not always in positive way.
In the old days, justice was righting a wrong, achieved usually through a physical punishment such as beheading or hanging. Nowadays things are quite different. We no longer follow the concept of ‘if they took someone elses life, their own should be taken too’, with the abolishment of the death sentence in 1975, but how can we right a wrong without following some sort of similar process? Sanctions like life imprisonment seem to be the true ‘deliverance of justice’; putting a criminal behind bars for the rest of their life is the ultimate punishment because it is taking them away from the true means of life; their standard of living is extremely poor – they have no chance of getting out and re committing. WRONG! There is a ‘little’ thing called the non-parole period, and that can mean the difference between another criminal on our streets, ready to commit again, or a safe society - justice. In other words, the term life imprisonment does not necessarily mean life in prison. For example, an offender may be sentenced to ‘life imprisonment’ with a non-parole period of 35 years, meaning that they only have to serve a minimum of 35 years to be eligible for the chance of an early release. This was the case for the serial rapist Adrian Baley, whom Jill Meagher fell victim to, with her murder in late 2012. Bayley was on parole with many prior convictions of rape and assault, when he did the same to Jill, and ended up killing her. Justice is about fairness and reasonableness, especially in the way people are treated or decisions are made. In no way is
Justice in itself isn’t always just; it’s just a lid put on issues so we can close it, seal it off and chuck it away: we can ‘move on’. People say justice has been achieved when the bad guy goes to jail, but this isn’t so; justice just means someone pays for the crime. The innocent die and the innocent grieve. Justice is a ripple effect, forever taking its toll, and it is not always in positive way.
In the old days, justice was righting a wrong, achieved usually through a physical punishment such as beheading or hanging. Nowadays things are quite different. We no longer follow the concept of ‘if they took someone elses life, their own should be taken too’, with the abolishment of the death sentence in 1975, but how can we right a wrong without following some sort of similar process? Sanctions like life imprisonment seem to be the true ‘deliverance of justice’; putting a criminal behind bars for the rest of their life is the ultimate punishment because it is taking them away from the true means of life; their standard of living is extremely poor – they have no chance of getting out and re committing. WRONG! There is a ‘little’ thing called the non-parole period, and that can mean the difference between another criminal on our streets, ready to commit again, or a safe society - justice. In other words, the term life imprisonment does not necessarily mean life in prison. For example, an offender may be sentenced to ‘life imprisonment’ with a non-parole period of 35 years, meaning that they only have to serve a minimum of 35 years to be eligible for the chance of an early release. This was the case for the serial rapist Adrian Baley, whom Jill Meagher fell victim to, with her murder in late 2012. Bayley was on parole with many prior convictions of rape and assault, when he did the same to Jill, and ended up killing her. Justice is about fairness and reasonableness, especially in the way people are treated or decisions are made. In no way is