Title: Free Essay: Why Prisons Don't Work
Headings: Why Prisons Don't Work
Why Prisons Don't Work
Topics In This Paper

Content: The idea of punishing the few to deter the many is counterfeit because potential criminals either think they’re not going to get caught or they’re so emotionally desperate or psychologically distressed that they don’t care about the consequences of their actions. The threatened punishment, regardless of its severity, is never a factor in the equation. ( 2) As Rideau said above this use of prison is essentially useless, should be discontinued immediately, and prisons should adapt to a more fitting role in society. Once in prisons, criminals are kept way too long thus loosing the impact of the, hopefully, life-changing experience. Legislation has been operating under the false pretense that making sentences longer and/or harsher will lower crime rates and increase the standard of living. Making decisions based on this has negatively affected one of the few uses prisons have which is “isolating young criminals long enough to give them a chance to grow up and get a grip on their impulses.” ( 2) That is the greatest way in which prisons serve society and politicians who are eager to be re-elected are undermining this in order to look good for the press. Prisoners kept too long tend to embrace the criminal culture, its distorted values and beliefs; they have little choice---prison is their life. There are some prisoners who cannot be returned to society… but the monsters who need to die in prison are rare exceptions in the criminal landscape. (