"Prisoners to get varsity-level courses"

Based on the newspaper article, "Prisoners to get varsity-level courses" excerpt dated 3 March,2013 from New Strait Times, I strongly agree with the measures taken by the Prisons Department in changing the right of a prisoner in life.

People used to have this kind of stigma, the idea of saying that most of the prisoners are not qualified in getting any opportunity and chances in continuing their life after being released. We are building a gap between these prisoners and the normal life with us within it. And trust me, we are being judgemental towards these people.

All of the measures done by the authority to enhance the skills and educational level of the prisoners, aiming to increase their competency after serving their sentence is what I believed a good did for these people. Not many of us dare to foreseeing the benefits of hiring some ex-prisoners nowadays but then, is it fair for the prisoners to be punished like this for their whole life?

As a human, these people have their right to continue living in this world, same like the others, despite what they have done before. It is unfair to judge these prisoners based on the crime they had commit before. Maybe, they have returned to the right path while serving their sentence. Who knows? All this while, people could change and it is not impossible for a prisoners to move back to their old life if we keep perceiving their fault once ago. As stated in the article, "the ministry and department had succeeded in reducing the level of repeats(those returning after being released from jail..", clearly people, we do not want the record to be decrease in a short time.

The crime that they committed might be beyond their conscious and they might do not even want to do it on the first place and influenced by some reasons such as the life hardship . Imagine if we or one of our family members are in that kind of situation, do we want to be judge by others forever? I bet we dont. 

Well, through this measures, it will not only gives new hopes to the prisoners but also moral support for them to change their life. With this way, we can let them know that there are chances for them to change themselves as well as their future.

“We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think that yours is the only path.”

Paulo Coelho