Does prison really help people?
Some people are just bad people and need to be kept away from the general population. Beyond that, prison does not help much. Since we don’t rehabilitate prisoners (I am in the US), we simply warehouse them with other criminals. While living together they not only develop a separate social system (which is not helpful when they get out), but they learn skills that are helpful for continuing a life of crime. Also, many will develop (or expand upon) a distain for authority (which is generally unhelpful to social cohesion).
