Last week we talked about the role a community plays in rehabilitation, and acknowledged how the government and citizens ought to usher someone convicted of a crime and incarcerated back into society. Now, let’s focus on the internal aspects of rehabilitation, and what is required from the individual.
Rehabilitation isn’t purely about external support--it requires something from the individual as well. No amount of government programs or community outreach can force a person to change. It can certainly help, but ultimately the decision to change one’s ways is a personal one. True reform demands an internal reckoning--an acknowledgment of wrongdoing and a sincere desire to live differently. Without that, external effort, whether its from the government or grassroots, could never make positive progress.
This is the same reason confession plays such a crucial role in Catholicism. It isn’t just about God’s forgiveness. It’s about taking ownership of your actions. A criminal justice system that wants real rehabilitation must recognize that internal transformation is the key. Many proponents of restorative justice try to implement structured opportunities for individuals to recognize the harm they cause, particularly by meeting with victims. Of course, not every type of harm would permit that connection, and these systems ultimately provide only the space to change--the individual has to step into it themselves.
I think everyone reading this knows that acknowledging guilt isn’t easy. Pride, fear, and shame make it tempting to justify, downplay, or block out one’s actions. And those tendencies don’t go away when the severity of the actions is scaled up. A key problem facing a systemic restoration of individuals and their offenses is that rehabilitation becomes a surface-level process without acknowledging guilt. If a person hasn’t actually changed their perspective and acknowledged their wrongs, how likely are they to avoid the same mistakes and habits in the future?
The fight for rehabilitation, therefore, has two fronts. The community and the legal system must provide the tools and opportunities for restoration, but the individual must be willing to take them. A person who refuses to acknowledge their own sin cannot be reconciled--not with others, not with society, and not with God. Justice, like grace, is freely offered, but it must also be accepted.
Until next time.
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