W

hat’
s the point of prison?
America is suffering
from a broken prison
system. We house 22 percent of the
world’
s prisoners while repre-
senting only 4.4 percent of the
world’
s population. Statistics
show that almost seven out of
10 released prisoners will be
rearrested within three years.
Are we doing it all wrong?
Let us turn to the civil laws
presented by God to Moses
in this week’
s Torah portion.
Included are the appropri-
ate punishments for certain
crimes but with one glaring
omission. Incarceration, the
primary and most commonly
used form of punishment in
modern-day societies, is not
mentioned.
But why would the Torah
reject imprisonment as a form of pun-
ishment? Everyone agrees that every
person should live in freedom and be
able to be productive. Western values
consider it a right that every human
being, if he so wishes, has the right to
be productive.
But when one breaks the law, he is
forfeiting that, and we, as a society,
take away that right of freedom.
The Torah’
s outlook is fundamen-
tally different: Human productivity is
not merely a right; it is an obligation.
It’
s not that you can be productive;
you must be productive! Every per-
son is entrusted with a unique God-
given mission that only he or she can
achieve, and the fulfillment of this
mission is critical for the trajectory of
history.
This is why incarceration is not an
option in the Torah. By locking some-
one up, you are robbing him or her of
the ability to fulfill a God-given mis-
sion. You are robbing humanity and
the world at large from the contribu-
tion that it needs from this person.
Instead of merely protecting society,
the Torah’
s punishments are tailored
to helping and rehabilitating the per-
son who committed the crime, guid-

ing the offender to achieve atonement
and thus continue fulfilling his or her
mission.
This is the beauty of Torah’
s justice
system. Criminals need to be
punished, but the punishment
needs to be productive and
encourage further growth.
How can we apply this prin-
ciple to our justice system?
America should rethink the
guiding principles behind
incarceration: Why are we
locking people up? For what
purpose? What do we hope to
gain from it?
Torah teaches us the correct
approach: Focus on rehabili-
tation and reintegration, not
revenge and retaliation. If a
fellow human being falls so low
that he or she resorts to crime,
then that person especially is
in need of our support and help. We
must ask ourselves, “How can we
assist this person to be a productive
member of society again? How can
we help this human being to fulfill his
mission?”
This refreshing approach was
championed by the Rebbe, Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Reaching out to the Jewish prison
population has been an integral part
of the Chabad Lubavitch platform for
decades. As per the Rebbe’
s request,
I often visit fellow Jews serving time
at local prisons, especially for Jewish
holidays, to give them the support and
community they so desperately need.
Rather than view criminals with
disdain, we should lend our support
and genuinely try to help them reha-
bilitate, by cultivating from within
them the sense of humanity that we
all share, with the fervent hope that
they, too, will eventually be able to
reclaim their place in society. ■


Rabbi Levi Dubov directs the Chabad Jewish
Center of Bloomfield Hills and teaches
adult-education courses on a variety of Jewish
subjects. He can be reached at rabbi@
bloomfieldhillschabad.org.

28 January 31 • 2019
jn

jews d
in
the
section

Rabbi Levi
Dubov
Contributing Writer

Prison Vs. Productivity

Parshat

Mishpatim:

Exodus

21:1-24:18;

Jeremiah

34:8-22,

33:25-26.

j spirit
j spirit

torah portion

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