Rehabilitation or Retribution, Our criminal justice system. Options

[MissHygienic]

Which one should we focus on more in our criminal justice system? Basically, which one would serve as a satisfactory/fitting punishment for prisoners?

[ersatz]

I personally feel better mentally about rehabilitation. Punishment always strikes me in an odd place; I've had strange experiences myself with "punishment", and it just irks me that certain people have the authority to say what another "deserves" for their perceived wrongdoing. In any case, more often than not, there is some sort of experience(s) that the criminal had early on in life that somehow affected his/her decision to commit the crime, so when I put that into perspective, I think that rehabilitation is the only "fair" thing to do. Whenever something traumatic happens to someone, we're always so nice until they do something "bad" because of it. Punishment is really not always the best deterrent. It works well with children only because they have not yet developed their own set of morals. Criminals obviously have a greatly differing moral code than most, so their code needs to be analyzed and the "bad" thing needs to be changed.

[Kontroll]

I personally feel better mentally about rehabilitation. Punishment always strikes me in an odd place; I've had strange experiences myself with "punishment", and it just irks me that certain people have the authority to say what another "deserves" for their perceived wrongdoing. In any case, more often than not, there is some sort of experience(s) that the criminal had early on in life that somehow affected his/her decision to commit the crime, so when I put that into perspective, I think that rehabilitation is the only "fair" thing to do. Whenever something traumatic happens to someone, we're always so nice until they do something "bad" because of it. Punishment is really not always the best deterrent. It works well with children only because they have not yet developed their own set of morals. Criminals obviously have a greatly differing moral code than most, so their code needs to be analyzed and the "bad" thing needs to be changed.

Sorry Charlie, I'm going to have to look the other way on this one. Americans spend too much money keeping inmates locked away for "rehabilitation" instead of "retribution." Over six billion dollars is spent "rehabilitating" criminals.

In 1995, the most recent year we can use for comparative purposes, the overall incarceration rate for the United States was 600 per 100,000 population, including local jails (but not juvenile institutions). Around the world, the only country with a higher rate was Russia, at 690 per 100,000.

"The number of people in prison, in jail, on parole, and on probation in the U.S. increased threefold between 1980 and 2000, to more than 6 million, and the number of people in prison increased from 319,598 to almost 2 million in the same period. This buildup has targeted the poor, and especially Blacks. In 1999, though Blacks were only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they were half of all prison inmates. In 2000, one out of three young Black men was either locked up, on probation, or on parole. The military-industrial complex of the 1950s, with its Cold War communist bogeyman, has been replaced by a prison-industrial complex, with young Black "predators" serving as its justification."

"From 1984 to 1994, Califomia built 21 prisons, and only one state university...the prison system realized a 209% increase in funding, compared to a 15% increase in state university funding."

They deserve a punishment suitable for their crime. Sitting in a jail cell is punishment, but not punishment enough. You have to give people a reason to fear doing crime. A slap on the wrist is not deterrant enough.