Should the purpose of prison be the punish or to reform?

Question

Or to remove people from general society?

Answer 1

About 95% of all people now in prison will eventually get out....move into our neighborhoods, work where we work or shop, look for someone to date/party with where we and/or our sons and daughters are.......

By sending them to prison, we ARE punishing them. Prison is the punishment. They should not come to prison FOR punishment. Straight up punishment only makes the career criminal hate society that much more.

I think we owe it to ourselves to give them every chance to decide to do the right thing when they get out.....in simple self-defense. They're gonna get out whether or not they're reformed, so I say, do everything in our power to help them reform.

Answer 2

It should do all these.

It should punish the guilty because it may motivate them to change.
It should imprison the guilty to give a sense of justice to the innocent and to keep the guilty from hurting others.
It should offer the means to reform if the guilty so wishes.

All of the above. And then some.

Answer 3

Punish and keep criminals out of society. If you research violent crime you'll find that a large percentage is committed by repeat offenders. Simple solution keep them there. The rights of the innocent should override the rights of the criminal

Answer 4

Depends on the crime.If it's for drugs or theift,lets be cool and give um a second chance to do better.Reform will probley work.If its child abuse,rape,or murder(murder depends on why)punishment.

Answer 5

I properly punished a criminal will be reformed!

Answer 6

What's the point of it all. A lot of people come out worse than when they went in.

Answer 7

Both!