A death row inmate sends book royalties to bereaved family

"There's even a death row inmate who sends his book royalties to the victim's family."

"People think that it is impossible to reform a prisoner on death row, but that's not always the case," said Rev. Ahn Hong-ki, 66, a member of the correction committee of the Ministry of Justice. We met at Global Praise Church in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on Thursday. Ahn has been working with death row inmates and other felons for more than 20 years and is known as a ‘pastor who specializes in edifying death row inmates and gangsters.’

- Wouldn't the same effort be better spent reforming lesser offenders than those on death row?

"In my experience, it's easier with death row inmates or felons who are sentenced to be imprisoned for 10 or 20 years because they tend to get discouraged and emotionally let go of everything. Imprisoned for one or two years, they don’t admit their wrongs as they get out soon, so they can't get rid of their greed. They think, 'I got caught because I was unlucky,' so it's not easy to enlighten them."

- Did you meet with a prisoner sentenced to death today, too?

"I'm mentoring eight death row inmates, and the one I met today has been in prison for 20 years. He wrote a book of poetry while incarcerated and sent some of the royalties to the families of his victims, who were in touch with him. He begged for forgiveness. Of course, some people can't be rehabilitated, and repentance doesn't bring back the dead, but I believe it gave solace to the affected families."

- You are a member of the correction committee, and you think correction policies are disappointing.

"It's called correction and edification policies, but they don't do much. Criminals don't become felons in the first place; they might come in with a minor offense, and if they are guided in the right direction, they can break the vicious cycle, especially with juvenile offenders. But even as a committee member, I only have 10 minutes a day for interviews. What can I achieve in that limited time? They consider it in terms of visits rather than activities focused on improvement."

- However, some argue that punishment should be more stringent than correctional efforts.

"If we invested more in correctional and rehabilitative efforts, we could prevent small crimes from escalating into more serious offenses as well as reduce recidivism and the overall number of criminals. Allowing crimes to escalate often happens because we neglect fundamental preventive measures. Instead, we tend to respond by increasing punishment, constructing more prisons, and expanding various resources such as equipment and staff for management as a countermeasure. Does that make sense? I don't believe that the severity of crimes necessarily increases because we don't implement the death penalty. Heinous crimes existed even when the death penalty was enforced, and I hope we rethink our approach."


Chin-Ku Lee sys1201@donga.com