Do you think the prison system serves a valuable purpose?
Prisons were not built on the premise of rehabilitation. They were built for punishment and to protect the general public. They are now getting in the business of rehabilitation because punishment is not enough to deter most people from re-offending when they are released. At this point in time prison still serves its original purpose of punishment and keeping the offender out of population for a period of time. It does not do well in the area of rehabilitation however. Some programs work and some don’t. Prisons need to be redesigned, staff requirements need to be changed and more money needs to be put into the system if we truly want our prisons to serve the dual function of punishment and rehabilitation. So far that hasn’t been done and the wheels of progress are very slow moving. However, if we do nothing we will face a bigger prison crisis than we already are with run down prisons, over crowding and lack of qualified personnel to staff them.
