this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
580 points (94.6% liked)
Asklemmy
44152 readers
1090 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Prison serves 3 purposes, or at least should.
The first is a deterrence. This is quite a yes/no thing however. Longer sentences, or worse conditions don't increase its effect.
Second is re-education. This is where most effort should be focused. You need to simultaneously break the bad habits causing issues, and implant good ones (in the form of skills, and improved social situations). The aim is to make them a productive member of society again.
Last is containment. Some people either cannot or will not function safely in society. These people either need to be contained indefinitely, or killed. Given the unreliability of the justice system, the latter is a dangerous route to walk, and often more expensive.
I'm personally of the view that we should all have free (tax funded), access to retraining courses and resources, along with physical, mental, and social health systems. Prison should mostly be focused on the enforced use of these. They are contained while they retrain and get the help they need. They are then released in a better state than they went in. It's the most cost efficient option. The Scandinavian countries already use something similar (for convicts), and it seems highly effective.