Does jail accomplish anything?

1. 59

   TheLoanConsultantposted 16 years ago

   Does jail accomplish anything?

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2. 0

   urimiddenposted 15 years ago

   Yes. It allows criminals to network with other criminals while creating hardened, foolish career morons.
   
   There are, of course, the exceptions, however, they are very rare and they typically only end up there once or twice.
   
   We live in a crime and punishment nation, not a rehabilitation nation. Thus we will eventually end up with only two classes...cops and criminals.
   
   If one is not willing to be ensconced in a jack-booted thug uniform and desusionally arrogant self-centered aggressive attitude, then they will be considered the enemy...the criminal.
   
   There will be no innocent, no juries. Just a judge/executioner and he will sit in defiance of all that is sacred, with a button in his hand attached to a trap door beneath the latest victim.
   
   Jails allow us to ignore the many ignorant contributions so many in this country make which enable and create much of the crime. The abusive law enforcement in this nation, including the prosecutors and DAs, coupled with the illegitimate judiciary, merely seek to employ the law as a manipulation, and the courts have sunk to a level of criminality which is mainly designed to work for the guilty, not the innocent. We now accept a system which bows to the economy of the court rather than demanding abrogation of the offense.
   
   Punishment is perverse. Seek to administer to the disease. Crime is spreading like a plague, and it acts much like an epedimic or pandemic in that close proximity many times spreads the infection. Cramming criminals into small boxes together as punishment only exacerbates their propensity to stagnate and promotes recidivism.
   
   Strange how this society prefers to punish rather than prevent. But then it is one of the most profitable ventures in many states and municipalities...in Nevada, it is second only to gambling.

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3. 60

   braudboyposted 15 years ago

   Jail certainly accomplishes the objective of taking the criminal out of society and confining him to those 4 walls.  It becomes much less effective in rehabilitating the criminal and leaves him with a very tarnished record once he is released.  It is therefore hard for this person to return to normal life as jobs are scarce and options are few.

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4. 36

   thinking out loudposted 15 years ago

   How long do you put up with a childs bad behavior before you send it to it's room?  When a person refuses to accept acting in a civil and reasonable manner, they should be removed from civil society.  I do however think that instead of the prison system we have today, we should go back to the work aspect of incarceration.  Farms, factories, public projects, instead of allowing the jailed the time and luxury to lay around and plan their future escapades.  It would also be a good skill builder for the unskilled, and a benefit to society instead of a drain.

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5. 51

   torrilposted 15 years ago

   yes and no, from societies point of view there has to be some form of punishment for crimes, which is right people can't commit crime and expect not to be punished.
   
   whether it accomplishes anything depends on the offender and the penal system firstly whether the offender is bothered about been incarcerated and how much time and effort the system puts into rehabilitating an offender.
   
   If the offender does not care about being in jail and does not see his offending as wrong and justifies this way of life, jail is just a means of stopping them from offending for the time being.
   
   first time offenders, it can accomplish two things depending on the system it can in some cases make things worse, if the offender becomes angry and hostile about his incarceration and develops an attitude of indifference  with negative peer pressure from inmates can become anti authority which in turn will make it difficult to work with this person towards his rehabilitation and will make his experience of prison very negative in terms of not learning any lessons in how to become productive once released.
   
   On the other hand one may find it such a dreadful experience they may not want to return, but this would have to be coupled with support through out the sentence, and on release.
   
   For offenders who have been in and out of prison their whole lives, IE career criminals, on the whole prison is not a deterrent but it is wrong to write anyone off we don't no the reasons why the offender chose this way of life, but in some cases some offenders do get tired of being in custody and long for change but can by this time be institutionalized and find it hard to cope on the outside in a productive society where there wont be many offers of employment or support.
   
   So there is not a straight forward answer it depends on the individual but for people going to jail for the first time or a juvenile, while it can work as a shock it can also have a detrimental effect, IE networking a new set of criminal friends and learning new and improved ways of committing crime, joining gangs and becoming angry and bitter, which does not help anyone

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6. 0

   sneakorocksolidposted 15 years ago

   I feel its a viable solution, I'm not sure its enough of a deterent. Maybe  additional time on a tightjy supervised schedule similar to the military and make them earn their rights back. While they get help with the life skills they will need to survive.

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7. 63

   breakfastpopposted 15 years ago

   The only thing jail accomplishes is that it removes the criminal from society,  so that he or she cannot hurt anyone again. I have always believed that a great deterrent to crime is mandatory sentencing. If you know that if you are apprehended while robbing a convenience store with a gun you will be in jail for 10 years, you might just think twice about committing the crime.

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