The convict is the product of the society he lived in, both in terms of the suffering that led him to steal a loaf of bread, as well as the excessive sentence he received as punishment for his “crime”. He was imprisoned for stealing money to buy food for his sick wife, this filled with despair, hopelessness, bitterness and anger at the injustice of it all.
Conduct a debate in the class (in groups) on the following topic. Instruction for conducting a debate (and the use of appropriate language) are given in the unit ‘Children’ of the Main Course Book.
‘Criminals are wicked and deserve punishment ’
Respected President and Dear Friends!
They say hate the sin and not the sinner. How did the convict in the story become a “convict”? He was a man like us once. He had a wife. Then suddenly, things changed for the worse. He was out of job. His wife fell ill. She was starving and dying. He stole for food, caught and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Sir, do we think the punishment he received justified his crime? He was not a seasoned criminal. He had no previous record of stealing. A poor man out of job and his wife ill and dying. What would he do? Let me ask it the other way round: What will we do in these circumstances?
The laws are to punish the guilty and not to punish the victims of circumstances, disease and poverty. The prisons are to reform the criminals. Sir, certainly, they are not the slaughter houses. They can’t be turned into little ‘hells’ where prisoners are fed on filth and tortured. I personally feel, and all of you will agree with me, that such a cruel punishment for such a petty offence only makes a person a hard-hearted criminal like the convict.