DON’T DISCRIMINATE AGAINST EX-PRISONERS

APRISONER is someone who is kept in a prison as a legal punishment for a crime or while waiting for trial. Prisoners are human beings like any one of us. The gist of the matter is that every person is a potential criminal in that the person can commit a crime and find herself or himself in prison upon being convicted.

One notable thing is that not every arrested person committed a crime per se. Some people are wrongly arrested for the offences they never committed. It could be that they were accused of the crime they didn’t commit and acquitted when the verdict is passed.

When the accused person is convicted by the courts of law, the convict will serve the jail sentence depending on the nature of crime committed.

The jail sentence can either be a death sentence or serving the number of years slapped on the convict by the judge presiding over the case.

There are two categories of crimes a person can commit.

These are felony and misdemeanor. A felony is a serious crime such as murder. A misdemeanor is a crime which is not serious crime such as common assault.

What determines the duration of the jail sentence the convict will serve is whether the crime committed is a felony or a misdemeanour. The felony can carry a jail sentence of fifteen years in the case of defilement for instance. On the other hand, the misdemeanour can carry a jail sentence of five years in the he case common assault.

The prisoner can be released from the prisons under the following circumstances: after serving the jail sentence and through the presidential prerogative of mercy where the Republican President pardons the prisoners before the jail sentence is over.

The prisoner upon releasefrom the prisons, they are integrated into society to begin another chapter of life after reforming in prisons. but, the ex-prisoners are in most cases not accepted by the people they find in society and the former are discriminated against.

The discrimination the ex prisoners suffer at the hands of members of society arise from the misconception that the ex prisoners will never reform.

In view of the aforesaid, I wish to rebut this misconception because some ex prisoners can reform and become useful members of society. That said, I implore members of society not to discriminate against the ex prisoners and let us embrace them as brothers and sisters.