prisons don't work?

Question

... or do they?

Re-offending rates of former inmates are really high. I can't remember the rates for other countries but they are similar enough to NZ rates: 87% re-offend within 5 years. More than 1/2 of them go back to prison. And 70% of the youth that re-offend go back to prison.

So what do prisons do well? (keeping the community 'safe' for a time...) and what do they fail at? (everything else...). What are they main purposes of prisons?

Why do prisons not work? Why do rehabilitation programs not work? Does the prison overcrowding problem need to be dealt with, do alternative methods need to be considered, does everything (especially rehabilitation programs) need to financed heaps more? And if this happens, will 'prisons work'?

Answer 1

Prisons don't do anything other than house inmates. Rehab programs don't work, but trade programs do. Install more trade programs, make inmates work,and maybe then we'll see the return rate decline.

Answer 2

The majority of prison inmates should never have been put in prison anyway. Most are in for drug related of fences. Drug addiction is a disease and should be handled by the Health Dept. Murderers, rapist, thief's, etc. etc., should be there, but be given education and treatment of some kind before being released back into society. Child molesters and abusers and exploiters should just be shot because they can never be "rehabilitate". Also, if we would build more schools and university's so that everyone could get a better education, we wouldn't need as many prisons.

Answer 3

I'm disappointed. I was hoping there was an English speaking country where this problem was not the same as it is in the U.S.A.

A why answer is is a bit more difficult. We have a prison in Arizona that works but most liberals (I must admit to some extent even me and I am a WASP [White Anglo Saxon Protestant]) Website below gives information. The following is a bit more graphic that the web site but the information is there.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF
AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER

THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio
(In Arizona )
who created the
" Tent City Jail":

He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

Hestopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but "G" movies.

Hestarted chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects. A person who I considered to be my most liberal Democrat friend (I think she is still a Democrat) sent this to me. That might tell you something.

ThenHe Started
Chain Gangs For Women
So He Wouldn't Get
Sued For
Discrimination.

He took away cable TV Until
he found out there was
A
Federal Court Order
that
Required Cable TV For Jails.
So He Hooked Up The CableTV Again
Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.

When asked why the weather channel
He Replied,
So They Will Know
How Hot It's Gonna Be
While They Are Working
ON
My Chain Gangs.

HeCut Off Coffee
Since It Has
Zero Nutritional Value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, "This Isn't
The Ritz/Carlton.
If YouDon't Like It,
Don't Come Back."

He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape that he pipes into thejails.

When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates werein his jails in the first place.


MoreOn The Arizona Sheriff:

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter
Than Usual In Phoenix
(116 Degrees Just SetANew Record),
the Associated Press Reports:
About 2,000 Inmates Living InABarbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment
At The
Maricopa County Jail Have BeenGiven Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued
Pink Boxer Shorts.

OnWednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers wereeither curled up on theirbunkbeds or chatted in the tents, which reached
138 Degrees
Inside The WeekBefore.

ManyWere Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels As SweatCollected On Their ChestsAndDripped Down To TheirPINK SOCKS.

"It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,"
Said James Zanzot,
An Inmate Who Has Lived InThe TENTS for 1 year.
"It's Inhumane."

JoeArpaio,
the tough-guy sheriff
who created the tent city and long ago startedmaking his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bitsympathetic
He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120Degrees In Iraq And
Our Soldiers Are Living InTents Too,
And They Have To
Wear Full Battle Gear,
But
They Didn't Commit Any Crimes,
So Shut Your DamnedMouths!"

WayTo Go, Sheriff!
Maybe if all prisons were like this one
there would be a lot lesscrime and/or repeatoffenders.
Criminals should be punished for theircrimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go outand commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers moneyand enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.

SheriffJoe
was just re-elected Sheriffin Maricopa County , Arizona

Answer 4

Most of these answers are obnoxious and stupid as usual.

Getting criminal convictions is humiliating and disasterous, and as you can see from the opinions given here no one is going to care...we will always have people breaking laws, so we will always need some prisons.

What you are reciting is media hype about how prisons don't rehabilitate people. Its the same hype over and over again. There is all this hype about the war on drugs and how we are incarcerating crack heads. Well, what do people want? Are we supposed to let people smoke crack until they destroy themselves and everyone around them? We will never stop all the crime because we seem to value our FREEDOM to do this and that above everything else. Why do people want the right to shove white powder up their nose? Why do they want to do dysfunctional crap? Why won't they leave their ex lover alone? Why do they keep bothering them?

Some of us were just dropped on our heads during critical years...

Answer 5

We have higher incarceration rates in the united states than in any other country. Prison is not rehabilitative. It is based on punishment and retribution. Another major problem we face is that prisons are being taken over by businesses. It is out of control and needs immediate attention.

Answer 6

By the time that one ends up in prison there's always some underlying factor within the person heading to it. From emotional/physical abuse,to being a people pleaser who never had a chance in the beginning for certain ignorances created from self-centered fear,low self-esteem,as well as the illness of the disease called/named addiction that not necessarily is of drugs! May even have to do with something deep within the human spirit and our soul....

Answer 7

Prisons keep criminals off the streets for a while. Nothing else. Since 70% go back anyway we should build twice as many prisions and keep them longer the first time. They get numerous chances before they finally go to prision to straighten out but they don't.

Answer 8

These days, crime is a better option than an honest life for a lot of people. People don't want to suffer a boring low paying job.
If caught, probation, or an easy time in a comfortable prison.
Crime isn't as "evil" as it used to be, influenced by TV

Answer 9

I think they should build holding cells on the front lawns of courthouses. Put the prisoners out there for everyone to see, and taunt. After they have been ridiculed and humiliated day after day, they might not want to come back for a second go round!

Answer 10

IMO...

prisons don't work because the re-offenders aren't scared of them. they go in and out like its summer camp. they get there and they know all of the people, so its like a reunion of sorts. also, the prison is basically run just like the streets and that's what those people are used to.

regular people, like me, are scared to death of prison. we aren't raised in the streets, we aren't used to violence, we value our freedom...so we're not likely to commit a heinous crime, whereas the 87% that you're referring to..they come from violence, they're used to it, so prison is no biggie.