2010-10-18, 11:12 AM
Hazzy Wrote:Four experts said he had mental issues. Putting an 18 year old boy with mental issues in jail does not solve anything. He should be in a mental hospital, not prison.
This assertion relies on your definition of the purpose of his imprisonment.
Is prison meant to be a punishment to him, a means of rehabilitation, or a means of protecting the rest of society from him?
If it's a punishment, yes, it's pointless since he clearly has no basis for right/wrong and won't learn anything from it.
If it's rehabilitative it may be equally pointless, but he's likely to get the same degree of counseling in a prison as he would in a psych ward, with better security and less risk of escape.
If it's to protect society from him where he's kept is mostly irrelevant and leaving him alive at all is a waste of time and resources.