Winston Churchill once said that a society?s health could be measured by the state of its prisons. We don?t have to look far. We already know what our prisons have to say on Mauritian society. But the question is: what are we doing about it?

It?s all very simple. We don?t need British consultants or Indian experts, contrarily to what the government seems to think, to explain to us how it works. Let?s take a simple example. A child has misbehaved. The parent is angry and wants to make sure the child does not commit the same misdeed again. Punishment seems the most sensible way to deal with things. So, the parent locks the child in his room.

Result? The child is angry and the punishment has the adverse effect. Instead of bringing about remorse, ten to one this ?punishment? will induce rebellion and resentment. Now let?s say, the parent was slightly more enlightened and reasonably versed in psychology. He/she would have analysed the reason for such behaviour, understood it and taken steps to tackle the problem accordingly. Making sure the child understands that, though the act is not being condoned, the parent cares enough to go to the roots of the problem. Result? Much less chance of recurrence. It does not take a genius to figure this out.

This situation, enlarged, is what happens in society. A repressive society with a legal and penal system will only bring out the worst in those it seeks to punish. This has been proven over and over again in all countries. America has one of the most repressive systems; it thus follows that its penal population is the largest. 2 million out of its 250 million people are in prison.

Check the society out. Check its prisons out. Scandinavian societies are the least repressive. And their penal population speaks for itself. There are more than 200 prisoners for every 100 000 Mauritians. There are 30 prisoners for every 100 000 Indians. And no one is alarmed?

Repression is not simply about humanity. It?s also about money. If those who govern this country don?t care about prisoners, it might help them to look at the balance sheet. At the end of the day, it costs money to keep people in prison and at the rate we are going, it won?t be a surprise if the cost of running our prisons alone ruins the economy.

While we?re busy devising ways of punishing people, we should make sure the state comes out richer. Let?s be crude. We need to make money out of prisoners, not the other way round.

The only way to sort our prisons out is to revise our present penal system completely. Let punishment give way to rehabilitation. Use imprisonment as a last resort. And when we do imprison, we take the ?inmates? in charge, look after them and cure them. And society needs to be ready to accept them back into its midst. This is also part of the rehabilitation program. Otherwise, our reformed citizens will just go back to where they are accepted ? Prisons.

But who are we kidding? This doesn?t win votes. The people want to see a system that represses, that punishes so it feels better. Avenged. And the government responds to that demand.

This is why governments will continue to make cosmetic attempts at sorting out the situation. Sacking heads of prisons, hiring new ones, contracting new consultants will never improve the situation. Such measures will simply help the government reassure the population that things are under control.

I?ve got news for you ? they are not. And if votes continue to remain the priority of governments, they will soon find themselves faced with a problem they are at a complete loss to understand, let alone tackle. Unless they start caring.