A bill to establish the National Rehabilitation Service (NRS), currently doing its rounds in Parliament, brought to the fore differences on how to deal with social misfits.

Street children, prostitutes, drug addicts and other delinquents were in the past shipped off to Iwawa Island where they underwent training in various skills.

Some came back reformed but others went back to their old ways, simply because there were no means of accompanying each individually and monitoring their progress in private life.

During the debate on the bill, some members of the House supported the idea of rehabilitating children but called for adults to be thrown in prison.

But how did the adult delinquency come about in the first place? That is the key question that MPs should be addressing. Some of the adult hoodlums never had the chance of guidance in their youth.

They were products of negligence and society also bears part of the blame. They were products of the streets and throwing them in jail, instead of rehabilitating them, is a sure way of breeding hardcore criminals.

One just needs to look at the American correctional system, being an ex-convict is a status symbol. The Gangsta (gangster) culture has taken root among the youth and is spilling over into other countries. Is that what we need here?

Misdirected adults were also once young, neglected by parents and society. They should also be given a chance to get back on the right path, not branded pariahs to be hidden away behind bars. That is not the solution

Everyone deserves a chance and NRS realises that. Nipping delinquency in the bud is definitely a priority, but so is straightening out young thugs and giving them a new lease of life.