What Is the Answer?
AT LEAST for a limited number of inmates, in-prison Bible instruction has been the answer. The wholesome information they have received has changed their lives radically, not just superficially.
In the past three years, forty-two inmates of Louisiana’s Angola prison have been baptized. Of these, fourteen have been released. I was curious about how they were doing; so I checked. Only one has returned to criminal activity.
Others are adjusting very well. At least one is serving in a congregation as a ministerial servant. Yet, as admitted, this in-prison program of Bible instruction is not the answer to the overall problem. It simply offers an opportunity that will help inmates who want to take advantage of it.
The Bible, however, provides specific guidance on the punishment of criminals. If it were applied, there is good reason to believe that the prison and crime problem would be alleviated greatly.
Compensation to Victims
God’s law to ancient Israel made no provision for prison sentences. The basic punishment for crimes against property, such as theft or fraud, was compensation to the victims.
However, very little, if any, help is now provided for victims of crime. Money stolen from them usually is not paid back, nor is compensation made for any damages sustained, either to their person or property. Yet the Bible shows that wrongdoers should be made responsible for their acts. How?
God’s law to ancient Israel provided that a person who stole a bull or a sheep had to pay the victim back two bulls or two sheep. And if he had slaughtered the animal, he had to pay back even more than two animals. If he could not, he had to serve as a hired laborer until he had paid off what was due the victim.—Ex. 22:1-9.
The value of thus making criminals responsible for their acts should be obvious. First, the victim was paid for his losses, plus more for his trouble. Secondly, it taught the lawbreaker a lesson that could benefit him. And, thirdly, it did not burden the community with the cost of supporting prisons.
On a limited scale this arrangement is now being tried. The Milwaukee Journal of December 19, 1975, reports:
“Instead of paying his debt to society by staying behind bars, Ray is back in the community working to repay his victims. Ray is one of 87 burglars, forgers and other offenders who have been released to Restitution Center, set up by Minnesota’s Department of Corrections. The convicts have paid back a total of $15,000 to their victims since the program began three years ago.”
And a UPI dispatch of February 6, 1977, observes:
“The Government is spending $2 million to help evaluate a concept in which criminals, instead of being sent to jail, are ordered to repay their victims through work. . . . The concept has been tried in several areas with promising results.”
But something else is needed besides making criminals compensate victims for their losses.
Capital Punishment
God’s law to ancient Israel also provided for the death penalty for a wide range of offenses, including, for example, murder, kidnapping, incest and bestiality. (Num. 35:30, 31; Ex. 21:16; Lev. 18:6-23, 29) The executions were usually by stoning, and were public.—Deut. 17:5.
Capital punishment was then a great restraint against crime. And, if swiftly and consistently applied, it could help to deter crime today, thus greatly relieving the prison problem. True, many who refuse to accept the wisdom of God on this matter will cry “cruelty.” Yet, where have their methods led us? Greater cruelty than ever before is being perpetrated, not on the criminals, but on their victims.
Again, it must be admitted that the problem of crime will not be eliminated by man despite the enforcement of the death penalty, or any other attempts to solve it. But there is a complete and satisfying answer.
The Sure Answer
James Q. Wilson, professor of government at Harvard University, in his book Thinking About Crime, showed what is needed. “Wicked people exist,” he noted in its final paragraph. “Nothing avails except to set them apart from innocent people.”
This is true. But who can judge who is wicked and who is innocent, and then set the wicked aside permanently, but not behind prison bars? Almighty God can, and it is his certain purpose to do so. His Word promises: “For the upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. As regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth.”—Prov. 2:21, 22.
After that, people will be governed by God’s laws. Such laws will be enforced by a loving but firm government, the one for which Christians have been taught to pray—God’s kingdom under Christ. How fine it will then be to live without any need for prisons, when everyone on earth can be trusted as a friend! (Matt. 6:9, 10)—Contributed.