ABSTRACT
Punishment is a human institution, in which a political authority has the power to impose certain pains, deprivations of rights or burdens on persons believed to have acted wrongly. This has important implications for its legitimacy. Scientist David Beetham describes legitimacy as a multidimensional concept, used differently by different professionals. He hence distinguishes different levels of legitimacy: the legal/constitutional validity of the acquisition and exercise of power; the justifiability of the rules governing a power relationship in terms of the beliefs and values current in a given society. Democratic constitutional states recognize a set of fundamental human rights and liberties that are deemed to be at the very core of the political construct. Lappi-Seppl has demonstrated that countries with higher prison rates do not necessarily enjoy higher political legitimacy and trust quite the contrary. The European standards justify parole, including for serious offenders, on the basis of the fundamental values of human rights, reintegration into society and community safety.
