Making the inside and outside of the prison similar
That's the correction

Are all the people in prison bad people?
Once you commit a crime and go to prison, even after you serve your sentence and are released, you are still perceived as a bad person.
On the other hand, can we say that a person who cleverly escapes the law and stays outside of prison, no matter how serious the crime, is a good person?
Unless there is a social consensus on this, prisons will remain dark, squalid, and closed, hidden from the world's attention.
What does prison, the institution at the end of the judicial system where sentences are carried out in the shadows after a case is concluded, mean to us today?

Philosophers and correctional scientists gathered together to discuss all sorts of topics related to prisons and jails in a conversational format.
The book covers topics such as the birth of prisons and punishment, old prisons in our country, the role of prisons, prisons in the United States and Northern Europe, the current state of prisons in our country, correctional rehabilitation, and social reintegration, but ultimately focuses on the problems and solutions of prisons in our country today.
Prison inmates are released back into society after a certain period of time, unless they are sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
This book argues that the first step toward reforming and rehabilitating these inmates is to make the inside and outside of prison similar.
To do so, we need to reflect on a more fundamental question: whether we can divide good people and bad people based on prison walls.
Once we understand that anyone can be both a perpetrator and a victim in an instant, a sense of community responsibility and a social consensus that everyone has the right to be respected as a human being, even if they are a criminal, will become possible.

As we planned this collection of essays, we thought of Foucault and Jeong Yak-yong.
Just as Foucault looked back on the history of European prisons and Jeong Yak-yong looked at the people of Joseon through prisons, I tried to fully unfold all the stories about prisons in this era.
Starting with Chapter 1, “The Birth of Prisons and Punishment,” and continuing through Chapter 2, “Law and Crime,” Chapters 3 and 4, “Inside and Outside Prisons,” Chapter 5, “Social Reintegration and Corrections,” and Chapter 6, “A World Without Prisons,” I tried to ask and answer everything that could be asked.


Recent research has also addressed issues of justice and forgiveness through restorative justice and victimology.
While the conversation continues, it also includes basic information about prisons for readers who are new to the issue, but the main flow of the story is the current issues facing prisons in Korean society.
In other words, this is the image of the prison that our society is facing today.
The final scene of this collection of essays, “The Future of Prisons,” can also be said to be the future of prisons in Korean society, derived from this context.
---From "Starting the Conversation"

Imprisonment is a punishment that deprives one of one's freedom for a period of time.
Therefore, the birth and establishment of freestyle is also related to the fact that the concept of time has changed over time.
European society after the 17th century, when prisons were built, was in a period of transition from a feudal society centered on rural areas and monasteries to a commercial society centered on urbanites and merchants.
We were moving from a life of leisurely waiting and repetitive time to an era where we had to compete with time and buy things with money.


People moved from the temporal life of farmers and monks to the temporal life of city dwellers and merchants.
It was a time when I began to experience the passage of time as money slipping through my fingers.
At this point, we have entered an era where stealing time becomes a punishment.
Depriving someone of their freedom means depriving them of time, which means depriving them of the opportunity to make money.
Time soon became the means of retribution.
Moreover, if forced labor had been imposed during that time and had generated profits, the state would have had no reason to refuse the creation of prisons.
---From "Chapter 1: The Birth and Punishment of Prison"

The background to the emergence of so-called 'restorative justice', which has recently received great attention both academically and practically, is the goal of properly restoring the status of the victim.
The key is to reconcile the perpetrator and the victim within the framework of atonement and forgiveness and to achieve peace in the relationship.
However, although it is easy to say, the reality is that it is difficult to even begin by bringing the perpetrator and the victim together when it comes to putting it into practice.


French philosopher Jacques Derrida says in his article “On Forgiveness”:
True forgiveness is said to be forgiving the unforgivable, and at the same time, it asks whether it is possible to forgive the unforgivable.
And if forgiveness means only forgiving what is forgivable, then the very concept of forgiveness loses its meaning.
Although both atonement and forgiveness may be painful, the idea of ​​restorative justice is that true peace can be found when we overcome this.
---From "Chapter 2 Law and Crime"

In our country, one in four people released from prison are reincarcerated within three years.
Although the recidivism rate is high, it also means that 3 people either do not commit crimes or commit minor crimes.
Because for some people, detention itself can act as a deterrent, it is important to make the environment and life inside the prison as similar as possible to the outside world.
That in itself would be the best correctional education program and correctional accidents would be significantly reduced.


It is inappropriate to operate prisons for the sole purpose of isolation, with the exception of a small number of high-risk inmates.
I think there is more to lose than to gain.
If prison is to become a place of improvement, a place of healing, a place to prepare for a second life, the period from admission to the time of service must be viewed as a preparatory stage for parole.
If that happens, the programs implemented in prisons will naturally change.
---From "Chapter 3 Inside the Prison"

Is he who lives in prison a bad person, and am I who lives outside prison a good person?
Am I still a good person because I haven't been convicted legally?
And since he is convicted and in prison, does that mean he must continue to be a bad person?
What is the reason he committed a crime while in prison, and have I truly never committed a crime?
Have I ever been spared from sin by luck or by virtue of my status?
We need to ask ourselves reflective questions like these:
This is John Rawls J.
I think it can also be linked to Rawls's concept of justice.


If I sinned for something I got for free and he didn't get by working for it, am I still a good person and he a bad person?
Is it ethically right for me, who has money, education, a job, connections, and health, to condemn someone who committed a crime because he lacked such qualifications as a bad person?
A reflective attitude toward these questions can make us grateful for the good fortune we have received for free, and compassionate toward those who did not receive it for free.
Furthermore, I believe that I can develop a sense of complicity because I can also be a perpetrator, and a sense of sharing because I can also be a victim.
---From "Chapter 4 Outside the Prison"

Since the modern era, we have moved from the era of corporal punishment, where criminals were punished by inflicting pain on the body, to the era of freedom punishment, where the deprivation of human freedom was the punishment, and we are now in the process of evolving into another era of punishment.
At this point, with the rapid expansion of electronic surveillance systems, the emergence of a new form of punishment in the private sector, along with the recent creation of the new term "digital prison," is significant.


This demonstrates that restricting or providing location or personal information can serve a punitive function and replace prison walls.
Future researchers should understand the evolution of punishment from historical and philosophical perspectives and establish correctional science as a futurology that imagines and explores future punishment.
Correctional studies must transcend the shackles of normative studies and become human studies and future studies.

---From Chapter 5, Social Rehabilitation and Correction