All laws affecting the administration of justice in cases where an individual has been accused of a crime always begin with the initial investigation of the crime and end with the imposition of punishment or unconditional release of the accused the person. In most cases it is up to members of the established authorities to mete out the punishment. It can therefore be stated that almost all penalties constitute an act of self-defense and an act of defense of the community from crimes of various kinds. According to Professor Hart “the ultimate justification of any punishment is not that it is a deterrent but that it is the community's emphatic denunciation of a crime” (Hart P.65). Whenever punishments are meted out keeping in mind the rational and human factor and not motivated by our punitive passions and pleasures, then they can be justified otherwise they are nothing but a brutal act of terrorism. Prison system: It has often been argued that convicted criminals and prisoners are released while law-abiding citizens starve. Some people are strongly against the current prison and parole system and say that prisoners are given no chance to get parole. Prisons must provide the following results: Keep dangerous criminals off the streets Create a deterrent to create a crime Deterrent to create a crime can be justified in the following four types Punishment: According to this type, the goal of prison is to give people , who commit a crime, what they deserved Deterrence: in this type of justification, the goal of punishment is to prevent a certain type of conduct Reform: the type of reform describes that the crime is a disease and therefore the goal of punishment is healing people Incapacity: the ...... middle of paper ...... edited by M. Tonry and J. Petersilia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Hart, L.A. Law, Liberty and Morality, London, OUP, 1966,Mauer, Marc. 1999. The race to incarceration. New York: National New Press Research Council. 1993. Losing Generations: Adolescents in High-Risk Contexts. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences. Petersilia, Giovanna. 1999. Parole and prisoner reentry in the United States. In Prisons, edited by M. Tonry and J. Petersilia. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. Rose, Dina R., and Todd R. Clear. 1998. Incarceration, social capital, and crime: Implications for social disorganization theory. Criminology 36 (3). Snell, Tracy L. 1994. Women in Prison. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics Varnam, Steve. Our prisons are a crime (prison system reform). Editorial. Christianity Today 21 June 1993