They were asking this question, on a TV discussion programme the other day.

But what do you think?

Does prison work?

I think so, it keeps murderers and rapists off the street for a while or forever. Since its such a no no to put them down humanely we end up paying for their care forever. Even after they killed somebodies grandma or kids or raped 16 little boys and girls. Prison works at keeping them away from innocent folks trying to shop and work and have a life. That is only my opinion and I am sure will xxxx alot of folks off, till one of their own gets it and then we hear the tune change.
Rehab? Not for rape or murder, I ain't buying that "oh poor person story". Let them rehab in jail. And stay there.

I don't believe in the death penalty for a couple reasons. First off, I don't believe we have any more right to take a life than the person who committede the murder/murders. Also, they are more and more finding out through DNA tests, that they executed the wrong person.

Secondly, if you take his life, what kind of punishment is that? No punishment at all! That;s too easy for a person who committs heinous crimes!

Does it rehabilitate them? No. It is a place to warehouse them and keep them away from me and my family? Yes.

But problems in society are in general what create prisoners. Child abuse, drug addiction, mental illness.

I would love to see the whole thing changed:

Make the prisons really drug free.

Screen the people for mental illness/low IQ/ brain injuries that might contribute to recidivism. Many prisoners are victims of childhood abuse and neglect that cause emotional and mental problems later in life.

Actually rehab the drug and alcohol addicted, not just detox them.

Teach the people who are in there for non-violent crimes to do a job that will actually earn them a living.

As for putting sex offenders in prison and then warning us when they let them out, why, what a messed-up business that is! I am glad of the warning; we need it since they let them out again, but if you have to warn the public, guess what: the criminal is still dangerous. Sex offenders, especially pedophiles, should never be out in public again. Maybe they can contribute in some way to society. Have them use their profession in some supervised way within the prison system, but don't let them loose again.

I agree with you, Skipperdog

whether or not prison works depends on what you are looking for from it.

if you want to provide an institution where a small minority of prisoners are held indefinitely, but the majority of prisoners are held on remand, or are there for the shorter term to be rehabilitated, learn new skills and behaviours and re-enter society as transformed individuals, then prison - at least in the uk - is a summary failure.

if on the other hand you want an institution where untried defendants and petty criminals are held and are easily able to obtain hard drugs, are regularly subjected to violence and rape, and learn further criminal skills in order to re-enter society as fully hardened criminals who will in a short time be back in prison, then prison in the uk is a massive success.

the british prison service makes as near as makes no difference no effort to curb drugs and violence in jails, and rehabilitation, even for those prisoners who genuinely want it, is a mere fantasy. prisons are society's scrap heap, where the fallout of society's failings end up.

i think society has to believe in rehabilitation. it is the only way that damage from crime can be healed. even for sex offenders. yes, some people are harder to rehab than others, but you have to try. if you don't, then the whole legal system becomes questionable.

we have a situation at the moment where somebody serving time for an unpaid traffic fine ends up rubbing shoulders with armed robbers. basically, no matter how petty your crime, life after prison can never be the same as before.

I agree, Janimal.

Yes, Janimal, I agree. There should absolutely be separate facilities for violent and non-violent offenders.

Somebody who is 60 and repeatedly passes bad checks at the liquor store should not be sitting in lockup with a 20 year old career criminal who killed someone for stepping on his new shoe. The old guy will be lucky to hang on to his entire meal in the cafeteria, much less his life.

It definitely needs looking at.

I cannot understand how someone can be put into prison for selling bananas by the pound, rather than the kilo, while someone who has committed a violent crime doesn't get a pro-rata sentence. Not that I think the first should be in at all.

Our justice system is a joke. It all depends on how much money you have to spend on a lawyer. As far as prison goes, in some prisons, they can get whatever they want or need. Alcohol, drugs, women. And both the inmates and the guards, on some level, participate in these things. At the very least, heads are turned away from what is happening. It's probably not like that on death row, but that is the way it is in a lot of prisons.

However I still do not believe in the death penalty for the reasons I stated in my previous post.

I do not understand how our government can do studies and tests that cost untold amounts of money that taxpayers have to pay for, and then continue to release them into society! They know that the perversions do not go away. They know (because sex perverts have told them), that the urges never go away. Remember that man who who begged them to castrate him because he didn't think he'd ever stop having those feelings and was 100% sure that he'd do it again!?