In your opinion, for what types of crime should prison be used? And should it be used primarily to punish or rehabilitate?
That is a touchy subject, but I have mixed emotions. Prison should be used for murderers, rapist, anyone who has done a crime where someone was harmed (either financially or physically) or killed. The thing is a lot of prisoners are going to be getting out at some point whether its 5 years or 20. A lot of the times they are out before their full prison term because of parole. In that case their needs to be some rehabilitation involved so that they can function in the world when they get out. That is the reality.
It should be used to protect the public from dangerous people and for rehabilitation Optimally, people should be reintegrated into society as soon as they are deemed to be stable and capable of living normal lives.
Reserve it for the worst of humanity. Those who betray the public trust or who main and murder for profit.
I would agree with this. If we intend to release some prisoners back into society, then they must be rehabilitated. So prison has to at least partly be about rehabilitation, because certainly not all prisoners are there for life. However, many prisoners cannot be rehabilitated and once released, will go on committing the same crimes that landed them in the slammer in the first place. It's a case-by-case system.
...I just read an article suggesting someone was jailed for googling in court recently. Bloody hell. Anyway, to put my own thoughts forward: I support imprisonment (more or less) only when it is necessary to protect others. When possible, it should be used to rehabilitate people. I don't believe in punishment, exactly. More... consequences.
Rapists and murderers should be tortured and killed IMO. I would love to torture and kill the people involved in the Anita Cobby case. I would love to beat up the guy who murdered Daniel Morcombe too.
Excuse me? What? I wouldn't literally kill someone but c'mon.. When we hear about rapists or murderers we kind of get the urge to make them suffer as much as the victims did.
Speak for yourself. Of course I'm not advocating their behaviour. But I don't believe a murder is cause for further violence. In this case, it isn't just about the rights of the individual, but about society itself. People may be temporarily satisfied with the torture or death of such an individual, but all it really does is foster a thirst for blood. Justice is one thing, but absolute justice has dire consequences, as well as being impossible. And yes, it is also about the rights of the individual. No, an unrehabilitated murderer cannot be released into society, but there's no justification for cruel punishments. Firstly, punishment tends not to be effective as a deterrent. Murders still happen where the death penalty exists. Secondly, it serves no purpose beyond personal vengeance, and certainly no benefit to society.
Okay fine i guess I was a bit wrong to say the things I said. Not trying to excuse it but no I'm not only speaking for myself. I'm not a pathological murderer but even the nicest people can have raging hatred for an act as disgusting as rape and murder.
Ideally, the only prisons there should be would exist solely to house the unrehabilitatable. However, crime is often due to causes not related to a criminal's personality. Most people don't want to commit crimes, the situation they are in simply paves the way for them to engage in criminal acts.
Oh, I know. But that isn't true of everyone, and the morality of such isn't determined by the popularity of those emotions.
I look at it like we should work our way backwards. I'm not sure about who should end up in prisons, but I know certain people shouldn't be there. Like, tax evaders or people who have money crimes. I think we should put them in a small town, make them work at McDonald's and live off of next to nothing. I fully believe the punishment should fit the crime.
In my opinion, the primary purpose of prison should be to protect the public. The secondary purpose of prison should be to rehabilitate most criminals. The tertiary purpose of prison should be to punish very serious criminals such as child abusers. Yeah, it depends strongly on the crime that was committed.
Having been to jail (not prison), I think I have a unique perspective on this. Even though I wasn't in a prison, a few individuals, during my stay, were being housed in the jail temporarily, before being shipped off. Some, were repeat offenders, so, overhearing them, I was informed of some prison conditions. I'd say that prison, at best, should be to house the most serious offenders. Rape, murder, intentional harming of a child. Attempt to rehabilitate, don't just lock them up and throw away the key. You think an inmate is bad enough, just being left to their own devices? Try giving up on that inmate, and see what they do, to 'give meaning to their existence' -- you'll have fights, injury infliction, maybe even murder, going on. I saw one fight, during my week in jail. Saw no serious injuries, and definitely saw no murder, but you could feel the tension -- the potential that, at any moment, something like that could happen. From the several inmates I mingled with, despite their different reasons for being locked up, all had one common fact about them -- they felt, this was it; end of the line. Nobody cared/cares about them, so, why should they care about others/rules? Jail isn't fun. I'm sure prison isn't either.
Basically... Deadman Wonderland! *thread* - In all seriousness though, i think that people are too quick to judge/punish, and just don't care with actual rehabilitation. My sister's husband killed a bunch of people by accident, so now his life is ruined, but it wasn't even his fault. I mean, sometimes bad stuff happens, and i get that people want to find a "bad guy" but, they are quick to forget that this is a life we are talking about, a life that they are ruining by being too quick to judge.
