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LafayetteLady -> RE: Should Life in prison, really mean Life in prison? Van Houten (7/8/2010 9:45:40 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Marini
quote:
ORIGINAL: kinkbound
quote:
And, just wondering - what do you guys think the purpose of prison is? I see it as a punishment for crime, but it seems that some see it as just a way to keep the criminal away from society as long as they are considered a danger to it.
In a saner society, the primary purpose would be rehabilitation. The automatic side benefit of rehabilitation is that it removes any threat to others, until if or when rehabilitation has been accomplished.
In a more intelligent and more sane society, every attempt would be made to create an environment that nurtures far less dysfunction of this horrific magnitude.
I think the question that has been raised: "Is prison designed to punish or rehabilitate?", is a good one.
Perhaps that distinction should be made at sentencing, it is often clear when prisoners get the death sentence,
or a life sentence, or a life sentence plus 100 years {which is common}, that they are being sent to prison to be punished.
Perhaps, we need to have a two or three tier system?
The punishment track, the rehabilitation track and the could go either way track.
Another question could be, if someone has a life sentence, should they even be eligible for parole?
Or which prisoners that have been given life sentences, should be eligible for parole?
Mari, I'm going with the full quote here because I think that kinkbound's post ties into the whole thing.
kinkbound, you aren't a young man by any stretch of the imagination at 55, so I'm really curious as to how you can make the claim that a "saner" society would have prisons for rehabilitation. Do you have ANY idea what is involved in rehabilitation or what studies have shown about the potential for rehabilitation for certain types of criminals?
For instance, studies have shown that pedophiles can not be rehabilitated. There are, at times, ways to prevent them from being able to ACT on their urges, but they can not be rehabilitated.
Now let's move on to serial killers. You believe that we should attempt to rehabilitate them and re-release them into society at large? It isn't quite that simple and I find it amazing that someone of your age should be so naive about the reality of such situations.
Charles Manson can not be rehabilitated. Anyone who has seen interviews of him over the years can tell you that. Any lay person can see the man is totally beyond rehabilitation.
Now Mari, back to what you were saying, the prison system as it currently exists does kind of have that "tier" system you talk about. Minimum/maximum security works pretty much the way you describe. The really violent offenders and people who are habitual re offenders end up in Maximum security, where rehabilitation isn't something that anyone is looking to do. Then you move to the lower security facilities, and inmates are taught trades, given an education, etc. all to help make them better able to function in society. In some prisons, the inmates have begun training service dogs for the disabled, and the program has seen much success. So has equine therapy. But these programs are designed for inmates that have the POTENTIAL for rehabilitation.
Most people talk about overhauling the prison system and the justice system without really having a concept of how it works. They just have an idea of how they think things should work without thinking about what reality is.
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