In the film Return to Paradise, the Malaysian government punished a man who had in his possession over 100 grams of marijuana. The judge in the end of the movie made an interesting claim. He compared the way how Malaysia and America deals with crime. He claimed the streets of Malaysia were cleaner because the Malaysian judicial system is stern on criminals. One can assume that he believes America isn’t tough enough on its criminals. Also that’s why the crime rate in America is so high.
His claims are very well rooted. More than half of the convicted felons in Malaysia are foreigners. It seems that Malaysian citizens are intimidated to obey the law. After all, the movie demonstrated the consequences of drug possession. Is the Malaysian prison system better than the American jail system?
If one were to truly dwell on it, Americans have granted prisoners a large opportunity. Malaysians, on the other hand aren’t granted the same privileges. The death sentence in America is a rare occurrence. About 16 people are sent to death row in America. In 2004, 59 people were sent to death row in Malaysia. Also in Malaysia, prisoners who are on death row don’t about their execution date until the day before it occurs. In addition, flogging is a common method of torture performed on Malaysian prisoners. In America, it is illegal for any form of torture to be inflicted on felons. These facts still don’t show us which is more effective. We can only discover which is more effective through recidivism rates.
Recidivism occurs when a felon returns to jail after his/her original sentence. In Malaysia, the recidivism rate for men is only 15% to 20%- for women it is 35% to 45%. In America, nearly 50% of men and 43% of women execute recidivism within 5 years of their release. Who do you think is more effective? Do you believe Malaysia can have a better recidivism rate if they adopted some U.S. principles? If so, which ones?
For more information you can go to:
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/recidivism/2003/curves.html
http://adriantai.blogspot.com/2006/10/malaysian-prison.html
http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/annual.htm
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-36509132.html
If you’d like to read some testimonies go to:
http://www.corpun.com/myj00405.htm
http://www.corpun.com/myjur1.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDQ/is_/ai_56701383
http://www.arcadepub.com/book/?GCOI=55970100746010
Sunday, November 9, 2008
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