What Good does Prison do?

Prison locks away people who have "wronged" society for years. Even being jailed for a few months can be very harmful to the life of anyone still in school.

Ten years and their life is ruined. (not just school kids) Their loved ones might have moved on, they become angry, and gain nothing. Being locked in a cement box will not make you a better person. All it does is satisfy the selfish desire of the "victim" for revenge.

Well, that's how I see it.

I'm sure people here disagree.
Please, enlighten me as to why. (Not sarcasm)

Yeah...prison seems like an extended timeout to me...but what else would you suggest? Death? Yeah...it seems as though prison is the most reasonable option unless I'm missing something.

I entirely agree - I don't think that prison helps the criminals that matter.
For example, say that you're having an argument with somebody. That person locking you in a room full of people that wholeheartedly agree with you isn't going to help their case.

Plus it wastes space, money, etc. But really, I don't see any viable alternatives :/;; with rehabilitation too expensive and massive of an effort, and capital punishment is wrong in all but the most severe situations imo. Maybe memory-haxing instant solitary confinement could scare a small-time criminal straight, but I'm worried about fooling around with that stuff.

Rehab would be much better than prison. Actually teaching them why their actions were wrong is going to yield more results than bitching at them.

Eldin, how expensive is it? o_o
I can assure you if we started messing with their heads by altering the brain's storage, religious groups would explode. *Hmmm, I'm liking this idea*

What. So we should just let murderers roam the streets?

the goal of prison is not punishment, but rehabilitation. There is a remnant of this goal in the name corrections facility. But punishment is easy, rehabilitation is hard so we focus a bit more on the other goal, the one saved for those who cannot be rehabilitated back into society: isolation and removal.

I think most prisons include some sort of rehab. When my dad was in prison, I know it helped him a lot.

What. So we should just let murderers roam the streets?

the goal of prison is not punishment, but rehabilitation. There is a remnant of this goal in the name corrections facility. But punishment is easy, rehabilitation is hard so we focus a bit more on the other goal, the one saved for those who cannot be rehabilitated back into society: isolation and removal.

If the goal is rehab, why are their sentences based on time, not progress?

Prison is punishment. At the same time, it takes them away from all real life stress and can calm them down for a few weeks/months/years. Helps them get a time out.

Overall- Punishment.

If the goal is rehab, why are their sentences based on time, not progress?

How can you possibly measure progress?

well, not every prisoner is a ceral killer vicious for revenge to the one who testified against him.

most are gangbangers, internet fruads, and sex assualts

the people above mostly "learn their lesson"

killing 1 person auto puts you in jail minimum for 15 years.


i think the prison system is fine, its the judicial system that fails to keep prisoners in jail or death row respectivly

Prison is punishment. At the same time, it takes them away from all real life stress and can calm them down for a few weeks/months/years. Helps them get a time out.

Overall- Punishment.

Yes, because it's so calming to be in a cement building for a quarter of your life, then when you finally get out, your life is screwed.

How can you possibly measure progress?

I'm not a therapist, so I really wouldn't know exactly, but it's not hard. <_<

Eldin, how expensive is it? o_o

I have a big article on rehab in some magazine in the house, but I'm not willing to go into my attic so I'm just going off old memories here, but-

a bit more than 2 million jailed criminals in the U.S.
a bit more than $20,000 per year per criminal jailed
=
a lot of money

Then, to rehabilitate criminals, you take that base cost and upgrade it- better lodgings (stone walls aren't conducive to "yay i don't hate society anymore" experiences), better food (same), therapist wages, legal scuffles deciding whether a criminal is eligible for rehab or not, etc.

tl;dr: I don't know. More than prison.

Yes, because it's so calming to be in a cement building for a quarter of your life, then when you finally get out, your life is screwed.

thats kind of the point. If we had it were you go into therapy or whatever, you can easily fake it and get out, and kill again...

thats kind of the point. If we had it were you go into therapy or whatever, you can easily fake it and get out, and kill again...

You're telling me the point of Jail is to screw over lives because of a few bad choices?

I'm also pretty sure fooling a therapist is hard.

Eldin, 50 billion a year is a lot. o_o
Meh, pretty sure it's less than what we've spent on the war.

well killing isnt a bad choice,, and its against the law

if you are in prison, its because you have been proven guilty,and you knew what you were doing.
The Therapy system as you discribe seems to premote killing and inturn premotes anarchy and apocalpse

same goes for most other crimes.


the only crime i tihnk can follow your "convienant to life serving" of therapy cant be treated. If you are a sex offender (rape, chiled mulestation..) you grew up that way (father did it ect.) 1/2 get out of jail from their 5-life years and commet the same crime again...

[COLOR="Plum"]@hazzy yes. I have no sympathy for people that rape children five years and under. Along with the people who also comit various heinous crimes.

It costs way too much money to "fix" these inmates and there are alot of other priorities that weigh over this for gov. money to be spent on. Most of the time they knew what they were doing, so if caught, they should be prepared to face the consequences.[/COLOR]

ruining your life should weigh your "choice" not to commit a crime

is it commet or commit btw?

is commet the one were yo go to the looney bin or am i getting it backwards?

Rehab would be much better than prison. Actually teaching them why their actions were wrong is going to yield more results than bitching at them.

Um...I'm pretty sure that they know it's wrong. If you're a diehard liberal, then you say that they commit crimes because the social situation they are in gives them no other options and not because they're just bad people, but I don't think anyone thinks that criminals just don't realize that what they're doing is bad. =x

Answer to your question = deterrence. It's supposed to show the rest of us what will happen if we commit a crime and give us a reason not to commit them. A lot of people don't believe that it's very effective at that, but it's definitely supposed to do more than "satisfy the selfish desire of the 'victim' for revenge." (Also, lol @ your scare quotes. I would imagine they'd be pretty offensive to anyone who had actually been the victim of a crime.)

Well I'd rather have criminals in prison away from society for a period of time so they don't commit any more crimes and maybe they'll learn something from it. For smaller crimes like shoplifting, a night in jail would make most people snap out of what their doing. For more serious crimes I'm not sure how that would work out but they'd most likely get angrier. What I'm saying is, it would be smarter to keep prisoners away from society where they won't commit any crimes than going through capital punishment.

If the goal is rehab, why are their sentences based on time, not progress?

So what about the person who died? Don't you think their family has a bit of resentment or hatred against the person? Theres absolutely no reason for you to take someone else the only thing they have total control of, their life.

So I do believe prison is ok how it is, if they only feel worst by being in prison and go outside seeking for revenge they can know they are gonna finish even worst. So its their decision.