How do you think country should approach prisons?

[Cubus]

If the country is facing a crime surge, most obvious solutions would be to send more people to the prison, or make senctences harsher (aka: send people to prisons for more years).

The problem is: ok, but what if the prisons get full?

One could say: you can just build more jails.

The problem is: the more prisons and prisoners you have, the more money state needs to spend on them: on their food, on hiring guards to check them, just on building these jails etc.

I work in the court now and in about 90% of cases I see, guilty are not sent to prison, instead they are sentenced for unpaid community service or get suspended sentenced. My guess is it's for not making prisons too overcrowded and not spend too much on these people's accommodation. Despite most of the nation expecting the crime to be punished.

[Gwendoline]

Depends on the crime. We should probably stop jailing drug users for using drugs.

The UK used to have a great prison system staffed by experienced well trained guards with years of experience that could also handle themselves and ex military and police but then the bean counters privatised the prisons so now it's made up of 18-25 year olds on minimum wage who don't care and can't look after themselves and prison governors basically give prisoners whatever they want such as PS5s and turn a blind eye to alcohol and drugs being smuggled in. A female prison guard recently got sacked and jailed for making a sex video with her inmate boyfriend in his cell while his buddy videoed it for onlyfans.

[jennifer_bloom]

I think punishing a few bad people very badly is more effective then punishing many bad people lightly, because people who operate in bad things tend to be pessimists who will always weigh the worst possible outcome, and not the most likely outcome, which is no jail sentence, or a week jail sentence. Another thing is providing people with a chance to rebuild their life after prison. I heard 80% or more starve to death or go back to prison after they are released, because no boss will hire somebody with a criminal record, so they end up reoffending, just because a jail cell guarantees them food and shelter, and its more comfortable then sleeping on the streets in the middle of winter.

[Cubus]

Yeah, the thing that nobody would hire you due to your past is one of the ways where capitalism sucks.

Dont know how it looks like in other countried, but in my country after a few years you get something called "expungement of conviction". Aka: you dont need to admit you commited a crime in the past, you are clean.

[lightbulb27]

I'm ok bringing back beating/whipping, suffering... and reform via therapy. Failure to evolve means steeper punishment. needs to have some parameters from a judge but with support of victims.

example: person intentionally kills your pet dog. not a big crime, not jail.

They get sentenced to being beaten so they are hurt and in pain and they understand not to ever do that again. The whole issue is a parenting issue anyways, so then re-establish good training.

re-release with monitoring device. If they don't change, beat them again. repeat.

jail is for people that are dangerous and need reformed or cannot be.

[OlderAndWiser]

How you approach prisons depends on whether you think the purpose is to protect the public from dangerous people, punish bad people for their bad behavior, to rehabilitate people so they don't commit more crimes when released, or to serve as a deterrent for people to not commit crimes at all.

What do you think is the purpose?

[Cubus]

All of it.

[OlderAndWiser]

Dangerous people go to prisons, with no exceptions.
Prison sentences are proportional to the harm done, as well as the prior criminal record of the defendant.
First offenders are given a chance at education and self-improvement while incarcerated, but not for repeat offenders.
Prison conditions are adequate to be safe but not very comfortable, and those conditions are publicized.

[Cubus]

How about people who give false testimony in court? Are they also "dangerous"?

[OlderAndWiser]

Are they giving false testimony to protect a murderer, or to protect their wife who is accused of simple trespass?

[Cubus]

Both can be considered a crime. At least in my country. It's decided case-by-case.

[OlderAndWiser]

Aiding a suspected murderer makes a person more dangerous than one who aids a trespasser.

[Cubus]

But both are still dangerous

[OlderAndWiser]

I don't think a man who commits perjury to protect his wife is dangerous in the same way as a man who tries to protect a murderer.

[exitseven]

Itcosts between $80,000 and $100,000 to incarcerate a person in the US. President Trump had contracted with El Salvador to take them in at $20,000 a year. Maybe the future is privatizing the prison system. It will save money and the prisoners will be less likely to re-offend.

[alice55]

I think prison should be build with the drugs dealer money and the people inside prison should pay for their own prison chamber / food and if they can't make them work for free in labor where we need it.

[DrPepper12]

Prison is regressive, expensive & violent. It's worse than useless.

USA America has no rehabilitation process, just vengeance. Unending retributive "Christian" rage & bile.