The Threat Of Punishment Doesn't Deter Repeat Offenders
Researchers from a number of different schools came together to study the impact of prison on deterring repeat offenders, specifically with regard to inmates from Michigan. Scientists worked together from the University of California, State University of New York, University of Colorado School of Medicine and other academic institutes.
They discovered that prison likely doesn't effectively deter repeat offenders, the threat of prison time and suffering the punishment of prison time isn't likely to have a drastic impact on changing the behavior of the offender.
A great deal of offenders today behind bars are struggling with mental illness which contributes greatly to their struggles, and they need help and education, not just punishment for their actions.
Some might say that if prison doesn't change their behavior, that perhaps harsher punishment is the answer, capital punishment even, but there are many reasons why that isn't a good idea. A majority of criminologists today also agree, that capital punishment hasn't proven to be an effective deterrent in the past.
The threat of going to jail alone isn't going to be enough to prevent people from engaging in criminality, the value to them that they get from their criminality at the time surpasses the risk and the punishment at the very least, regardless of how severe. This leaves room for alternative solutions to be considered that seek to reduce recidivism.
A great deal of solutions have been proposed and experimented with over the years, from calls for less supervision of ex-prisoners, to victim-offender mediation, among other approaches.
One program won't fix all.
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Well, being on the outside, for many of these same people is crueller, more inhuman and so unbearable that people have committed crimes to get back in jail.
Unless of course you have ulterior motives for owning a prison.
Of course, if we are trying to rehab criminals and have a nice society where children can be allowed to go to the store to buy a popsicle by themselves, then what we are doing with prisons
is completely wrong.
Here in the US, at least, we seem to have a disproportionately large prison population... and it troubles me that imprisonment is a "for profit" venture. I can't help but think that sets up a dynamic in which keeping people in prison is "better" than truly rehabilitating them.
That's one.
I also think there's a connection between the number of inmates and the general sense of "economic desperation" among the lower one-third of the US income demographic. United Way's ALICE project estimates that about 51 million HOUSEHOLDS in the US can't afford the basics of life. That's 40% of the population. Having that Sword of Damocles eternally over your head, eventually wears on you and can cause otherwise rational and reasonable people to make irrational choices.
Including crimes. Sometimes being in prison with a roof over your head and some kind of food beats living in a ditch...
Criminals need and want to change or otherwise the will commit crime again!
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Hi doitvoluntarily, all very true. I think that the government does not want to spend the money on assessing and helping individuals.