What as a society, do we expect punishment to accomplish? Two cases that have made the news have reawakened this question. Those of the Scottish release of the Lockerbie bomber, and now one of the Manson family members Susan Atkins. Both stories raise the emotional issues, but share a common thread both subjects have terminally ill people at the center of the question. The Scottish Courts for reasons of compassion have released the only person convicted of the crime. While the State of California has chosen to deny Susan Atkins parole, to what end?

The question becomes what is it that we expect punishment to accomplish, we throw people into jail, but what do we expect the action to accomplish? Do we simple dispose of those who we deem unfit to be in our society? Do we expect them to redeemed? If we are going to redeem them then what is it that we use as measurement of success? Some acts are so heinous that we abandon hope of redemption what exactly do we do with these people? For those we deemed as have been rehabilitated how do we treat them after they have been redeemed? These are basic questions that we must come to grips with as a society, will not go away.

Are we as society willing to dispose of people that we believe that we are unable to redeem? Is it just a matter of legally disposing of the unwanted people, is this ethical? Can we truly rehabilitate a person who has committed a crime? If so, what and how do we accomplish this action?

As you consider your child if the child does something we deem as a danger to his welfare we punish the child, in some cases by telling him to consider what he has done, what do we expect him to say? Do we continue to punish him after the child has done his crime? Do we hang a millstone about his neck forever and revisit the offense in perpetuity?

How then do deal with those who have committed a crime against society? Do we banish them never to return to our mists? Do we absolve them of there crime and give them another chance to be come a useful member of our society? If so how long and what do expect of them. These are not easy questions, but must be answered in order to have a functioning society.

Is jail time an adult version of a time out? Do we brand offenders with a scarlet letter to be treated as pariah not fit for our society?