Our society is one where we see people through the lens of what we believe they deserve and what we also believe they do not, writes Thomas Tarurongo Wynne.

Politicians and traditional leaders, spiritual leaders and dignitaries we believe deserve to sit at the head of a table, deserve recognition in the speeches and welcomes and some we even carry on our shoulders, because not only do we believe they deserve it, we demonstrate it. And yet we are reminded that the “greatest amongst us” are those that serve and that service deserves more regard than position and titles and that service is something we as a society should celebrate and recognise.

Nelson Mandela, who himself spent 27 years in prison in South Africa, famously said, “No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” By Mandela’s standard, how would we judge our own country if we were to judge it not by how we treat those in high positions but those that we have little or no regard for at all. Often our position is that the Law is the law and if they do the crime, they should do the time and that we should lock them up, and throw away the key. My question is, which key then, should we throw away?

The key called human decency or maybe the one called our basic human rights, or maybe the key that says compassion and restoration. Regardless of whether we are in a prison of our making or a prison made of bricks and mortar, we all have found ourselves in a prison, and we all have at times needed love, compassion, understanding and forgiveness, when we least deserved it, and a love and compassion that often unlocked us from that cage, and set us free to live the lives we now enjoy and celebrate. Prisons take many forms, some are prisons of appetites, of desires, money, religion, status and pride and it is these prisons we all at some stage have found ourselves locked inside and struggled to get out. If there is a measure of compassion and understanding for us, when we most needed it, then what then for those still in prison?

And if we believe that the Law is the law and if they do the crime they should do the time, my suggestion is that this must be balanced with the law not always reflecting the moral compass of its people, especially when it is outdated as ours is, and that justice for those that can afford a Queen’s Counsel is not the same as justice for those that struggle to afford a lawyer at all. Justice is not a level playing field, anyone that has worked with the Courts or those in prison knows this, and too often we see justice measured out, by the justice you can afford and not the justice you deserved.

I have over the years worked with many men, friends and some family who have found themselves in prison, because when they go inside, we all go inside with them. A prisoner is never in there alone because all they love gets locked up also and we all get punished in the process. That is why prison and prisoners and the way they are treated or looked on by our society is such a good measure because when you have lost your freedom, you have lost almost everything and have nothing to offer anyone anymore.

No one, let alone prisoners, expect that a prison should be luxurious, but on the same hand it should never be inhumane, it should never exploit the labour of its prisoners or its staff and that consequences, shame and a loss of freedom can be balanced with compassion, care, love and understanding. Because this balance can provide the key needed in the lives of these often young men and women, so that they never find their way back to prison again.