What do you think is the purpose of prison? Are are of those purposes more important?
Prison is the way with which society deals with criminals. Prison. Each crime carries with it a minimum and maximum sentence to take into account prevailing circumstances and context.
Prison has four key purposes: Punishment, Rehabilitation, Deterrent, and Retribution. I will deal with each aspect here, except for Retribution which will be a separate post.
Punishment: Prison removes the offender from society, therefore denying [his] civil liberties, and protecting society from the possibility of further crime. Therefore, punishment is meted out. You may disagree that the punishment fits the severity of the crime – but that’s why we have a highly developed justice system where legal brains far better than ours have refined statute and sentencing over centuries.
Rehabilitation: Prison offers the opportunity for rehabilitation. Whether that comes in the form of employment skills, social skills, learning about alternative paths (such as religion) for living non-criminal lives. Not everyone wants to be rehabilitated and the cycle of re-offending runs deep, but shouldn’t we at least present the opportunity? And for persistent offenders, the sentences are adjusted to reflect the prevailing circumstances and context. You could therefore argue that rehabilitation has only a small chance of success based on the reoffending rates. Maybe. But people still do the lottery with much smaller odds.
Deterrent: Prisons provide warnings to people thinking about committing crimes, and the intention is that the possibility of going to prison will discourage people from breaking the law. I personally can’t even begin to think how terrified I would be of losing my civil liberties. My ability to make a cup of coffee when I choose. To go for a walk when I choose. To stop and smell the roses. You get the picture. Think about what you have done today. Have you had to ask permission from anyone to do those things – or have you just assumed you can? Now think about how incapacitated you would feel if all those little things we take for granted were removed.
Prison is the way with which society deals with criminals. Prison. Each crime carries with it a minimum and maximum sentence to take into account prevailing circumstances and context.
Prison has four key purposes: Punishment, Rehabilitation, Deterrent, and Retribution. I will deal with each aspect here, except for Retribution which will be a separate post.
Punishment: Prison removes the offender from society, therefore denying [his] civil liberties, and protecting society from the possibility of further crime. Therefore, punishment is meted out. You may disagree that the punishment fits the severity of the crime – but that’s why we have a highly developed justice system where legal brains far better than ours have refined statute and sentencing over centuries.
Rehabilitation: Prison offers the opportunity for rehabilitation. Whether that comes in the form of employment skills, social skills, learning about alternative paths (such as religion) for living non-criminal lives. Not everyone wants to be rehabilitated and the cycle of re-offending runs deep, but shouldn’t we at least present the opportunity? And for persistent offenders, the sentences are adjusted to reflect the prevailing circumstances and context. You could therefore argue that rehabilitation has only a small chance of success based on the reoffending rates. Maybe. But people still do the lottery with much smaller odds.
Deterrent: Prisons provide warnings to people thinking about committing crimes, and the intention is that the possibility of going to prison will discourage people from breaking the law. I personally can’t even begin to think how terrified I would be of losing my civil liberties. My ability to make a cup of coffee when I choose. To go for a walk when I choose. To stop and smell the roses. You get the picture. Think about what you have done today. Have you had to ask permission from anyone to do those things – or have you just assumed you can? Now think about how incapacitated you would feel if all those little things we take for granted were removed.
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