NationStates Jolt Archive


Ministry ordered to investigate new rehabilitation methods.

Xanthal
07-05-2004, 20:53
The Triumvirate ordered the Ministry of Justice today to "pursue new methods of rehabilitating criminals without the use of personality- and/or memory-erasing procedures." The order was the conclusion of almost a month of debate in the Triumvirate and the Council regarding the ethics of the Ministry of Justice's practice of neural reprogramming to rehabilitate convicted criminals when other methods have failed. Currently practiced on about 1/3 of the system's inmates, neural reprogramming alters the subject's personality and memories in order to help them better live in society. The technique, which has a 92% success rate, was first called to question two months ago by the Minister of Social Affairs. Joined rapidly by anumber of other Ministers and groups, they forced the Xanthalian government to confront the usually autonomous Ministry of Justice regarding its practices.
"It's a shame that this wasn't dealt with earlier, because it's too late to outright ban the procedure now," said Triumvir Erica Quoss after the decision was announced this evening. "The Ministry of Justice needs to find a new way to rehabilitate convicts, because we don't have the capacity to throw them all into jail." In response to the decision, the Minister of Justice issued a short statement to the press.
"I do not agree with the Triumvirate's decision in this case, but I assure the Xanthalian people that I will do everything in my power to hasten the development of more effective rehabilitation procedures." The Ministry of Justice will most likely be rolling out several new programs in the coming weeks aimed at hastening the coming of those procedures.