It’s bittersweet news of the teen who was apprehended because he hacked into the Twitter accounts of celebrities. Bitter for the fraud and sweet because of the ingenuity of a person who’s less of an adult (Teen arrested as mastermind of Twitter hack in Florida,” Aug.1, Gulf Today).

Instead of putting him in prison where his brain will waste away why can’t the punishment be reformative? The genius can be used for good purposes. In fact Twitter can hire him to look into its security measures.

Having said that, such skill is needed in every aspect of today’s world. With proper mentoring and tweaks this teen could very well be another Steve jobs or Bill Gates. One can’t deny that he has got the intelligence to be someone great and influential somewhere down the line.

Prisons aren’t reformative. They are regressive. Akin to smothering out the soul, forgetting that prisoners are humans too. And that’s the problem with prisons. Many good people are lost to them.

Joyce D — By email