Crime and punishment

I am confused. It is my understanding that in western democracies the “punishment” for breaking the rules (laws) of society, depending on the severity of the breach, is removal from that society (ie. prison).

Our punitive system is based on the loss of freedom and the loss of freedom only.

This means that those who are sentenced lose the right to be with their families (except on supervised visits), the right to go to Tim’s for a coffee, the right to go downtown, to go to the mall etc. …all things that we take for granted as free people.

Presumably, as well, we remove people from society so that they can learn, or hopefully we can teach them, to better respect our society upon their return. Otherwise, we’ll send them back again.

Now, however, I read that prison psychiatrist Dr. David Craig writes that inmates can be further “punished” while in custody.

This is not my understanding and therein lies my confusion.

Dr. Craig put in writing that he took a mentally ill inmate off his medication prescribed by another qualified doctor because “HMP is punitive.”

Who gave Dr. Craig the right to punish anybody? Does this not fly in the face of what the philosophy of corrections is all about in our western democracies?

If Dr. Craig’s actions are not illegal then aren’t they, at the very least, unethical?

Kevin Foley Torbay