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

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