Sentence | Shōmei
Edit| Zhaoming
Feng Menglong of the Ming Dynasty recorded such an incident in the "Complete Works of the Think Tank", saying that in the sixth year of Tang Zhenguan (632 AD), Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, saw the list of death sentences sent by the Criminal Department, which was full of 390 people.
Li Shimin was shocked, and had compassion, and then went to the prison to inspect, when he saw the criminals' expressions of regret, Li Shimin was even more unbearable, so he put them all back, let them go home for a good year, and agreed to ask for beheading again in the next year.
In this way, the condemned prisoners are gone, and the officials are worried, after all, this is all a factor of social instability, and there will be endless troubles in case of escape, but what everyone did not expect is that when the time came for the second year, all 390 people returned, without exception.
Li Shimin was very happy, and immediately ordered them to be pardoned, and they also went around preaching the virtues of Tang Taizong's generosity and benevolence, and lived a stable life.
Since this story is not recorded in the official history, many people feel that it is not true, after all, it is too exaggerated.
However, in real life, such an example does occur.
According to the Global Times, in the past Christmas 2023, the Brazilian government released more than 1,700 prisoners in one go in order to let them celebrate Christmas, and agreed with them that they would return to prison to serve their sentences when the holiday was over.
It's just that the Brazilian police never expected that hundreds of people would take the opportunity to escape from prison and escape, what is going on?
It turned out that it was Brazilian law to send some prisoners home for vacation, which they saw as a sign of greater respect for human rights.
Of course, not everyone can have this treatment, and for some heinous murderers, they will still be locked up in prison to serve their sentences.
It is not so easy for the remaining criminals to get a vacation to go out and see, they have to maintain good behavior for a considerable period of time and get the approval of the prison guards.
In the eyes of the police, these prisoners who can go home for vacation should theoretically have changed their minds, and letting them go back to accompany their families can also better demonstrate the police's law enforcement temperature.
As a result, on Christmas Eve last year, the Brazilian police released more than 1,700 prisoners in one go, and although the local people were a little suspicious, they did not say much.
In the blink of an eye, Christmas is over, the new year begins, and when the holiday is over, the prison is also carefully counting the list of prisoners who have returned, but by the stipulated time, more than 250 people have not returned.
What worries the police even more is that two of these prisoners are notorious gang leaders, and if they are allowed to go unpunished, it will have a serious impact on local social order.
For this reason, the prison authorities immediately contacted their families, but the reply from them was vague and refused to tell the whereabouts of the prisoners.
In other words, more than 250 prisoners have escaped from prison, and the Brazilian people are even more uneasy, and there are already many loopholes in Brazil's social security.
On the other hand, the local police immediately listed the escaped prisoners as fugitives, issued a wanted warrant, and launched a large-scale search for them.
It's just that in the vast sea of people, it is not easy to arrest all the tigers back to the mountains, and as of now, there are still a large number of prisoners on the run.
Facts have proved that it is difficult for human nature to stand the test, the law is used to restrain the evil in human nature, the prison is the place to guard the prisoners, and the prisoners can go home for vacation, so what do you want the prison to do, Li Shimin's beautiful result of letting the prisoners go home is only a flash in the pan, and in most cases, once the prisoners have a chance to escape, they will often spare no effort.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time that the Brazilian police have done this.
After years of development, Brazil has now become the ninth largest economy in the world and one of the fastest-growing countries in the southern hemisphere.
As a result, this unreliable law for releasing prisoners to go home for vacation was born, and for a long time in the past, prisoners escaped from prison on vacation almost every year.
In 2022, 43% of the prisoners who were allowed to go home for the holiday did not return to prison, and although the number has decreased this year, it has also had a significant impact on social order.
It is hoped that the Brazilian government will recognize the reality, proceed from reality, and proceed from the safety of the people, and formulate effective laws to manage prisoners.
Humanitarianism is good, and there is nothing wrong with respecting human rights, but it must be used in the right place.
It is worth mentioning that after some netizens saw this incident, they even took the initiative to give a strange way, that is, to reduce the sentences of prisoners who took the initiative to come back to continue serving their sentences, and severely punish those prisoners who escaped after they were caught, so that there will naturally be fewer and fewer prisoners who escaped.
It can only be said that it is not a bad way, but it is unknown whether it can completely eradicate the occurrence of prison escape.
What do you think about this?