What a wonderful article — and it gets to the root of the debate too. Can we hold our objective beliefs about how society should be when we as an individual are directly emotionally affected. There’s no right or wrong here, as it is a huge grey area.

I would suggest that restorative justice is a better model than prison — that the person who pushed your father should be given the chance to see what he has done and confront what that really means on a personal level. That’s a lot harder for everyone concerned and takes a lot of moral fortitude. To send someone to prison does not necessarily work for the reasons you’ve outlined and in this instance — I suspect will reinforce the anger issues and underlying low self esteem of the person sent there. The cycle will continue.

This, of course, is very easy for me to say — because it was not my father who was pushed and I did not have to go to the ICU. Whether my objective view, which is similar to yours (ie. Prisons don’t work and simply reinforce social inequality) would stand the same subjective experience as yours, I can’t say. I honestly don’t know.

A compelling read, a great article and I wish all the best for you, your dad and your family.