His cause is that of fighting for the prisoners’ “rights”. My cause is that of seeking justice and actually putting it into practice.

Who is right? No doubt last Friday’s Xarabank resulted in a lot of mixed reactions from people from all walks of life. Some do not agree with a life sentence in jail. Others like myself believe that criminals deserve what they get.

The questions really are what do we mean when we say justice, and justice for whom? What do we want when we say reform, and which people qualify for the reformation of their character? Should prison be just a place of detention or should there be people qualified to help the prisoner turn over a new leaf?

I am no judge, and neither do I want to be, but to me, justice – when someone is cold-bloodedly murdered – means justice for taking the life of somebody and justice for the family of their beloved victim. The dead will not return but for a desolated heart or hearts, liberty taken away from the perpetrator means justice for the family of the deceased.

I feel that everyone, however, should have the chance to reform, whether he or she is serving a life sentence or has been jailed for a few years. Evil doers can still find peace in their heart even though their prison cell will be their home for life.

I believe that they should be entitled to all necessary commodities, and have a library in prison, but allowing them to mingle with people is a “luxury” they should be denied.

If they did not want to do the time, then they should not have done the crime – a fact that Fr Mark Montebello keeps forgetting time after time.

With regard to others who are serving time for petty crimes and drug abuse, how can prison be a place of reform? Why not place drug addicts in a special unit where they follow drug rehabilitation programmes?

Why are prisoners who are serving time for robbery or fraud not allowed the privilege of changing their way of life by having one-to-one counselling from psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc., in order for them to come out of prison with a stronger character?

There is no shred of evidence that the priest and I will ever agree on time for crime. What Fr Montebello refuses to accept is that Jesus Christ himself gave us a lesson when he was nailed to the cross between two robbers. The bad one asked for nothing. The good one asked for forgiveness, to which Jesus replied: “You will be with me in Heaven”.

So Fr Mark, in spite of your tendencies to want to eliminate prison entirely, I believe that there never will come a time when life sentences will be eliminated.

Valerie Borg

Valletta