Is it Moral and Ethical to Imprison an Individual for wrongs committed by him??

Broadly we can divide criminals into 2 types –

(a) Criminal due to necessity.

(b) Criminal due to mindset.

When a person is criminal due to necessity owing to inadequate opportunities and unemployment it would be ethically wrong to punish them as their crime was out of necessity and not out of choice. 

These individuals can be excellent asset for the society if they are given appropriate opportunities and a dignified life. But if they are imprisoned it can cause a bad effect on their personality and can change their good character into bad. There is no guarantee that after serving their sentence they will come out as good beings but if properly counseled and given a chance they may transform them into good individuals.

The second type of criminal due to mindset need to be thoroughly assessed before taking decision on them. Those who are mentally ill must be sent to hospitals for care and should not be released until are fully cured.

But those who like doing crime and do it out of choice are the most dangerous for the society. These are those people who will repeat their crime even after the completion of their sentence. So here ethics says that these type of criminals should be kept away from the mainstream society.

So we can sum up that application of ethics before awarding punishment varies from individual to individual.