Is Prison a Punishment?

Societies evolve laws.  Laws are like family rules.  They let everyone know what behaviour is not acceptable and give boundaries to live within. Kick against the boundaries and there are penalties but also assurance that they are there.  Parents are always having to confirm boundaries. This is a metaphor, a nanny state is not the point of this article!

Every society has to have some form of enforcing their laws. This requires some form of punishment. Every country has prisons.  

The obvious said, what do we expect from our prisons?  Being deprived of liberty is a harsh punishment. While the individual has the discomfort of being away from home and family, the family have to cope without one of the adults who might be the bread winner because there are more men than women in prison. The reasons are various.

When you think about sending someone to prison, you think that this is punishment enough and that they will learn to follow the rules of our society. This misses a subtle psychological element.

What has emerged over the last few years is that sending a fairly unsophisticated young person to prison is actually sending them into an institution which educates them in how to commit further crime.  It also puts them in contact with established ne ‘er do wells. As a result recidivism is high. 

Another shocking thing about prisons is that rehabilitation is not their prime motive.  Prisons are full of individuals who are illiterate, mentally struggling, from backgrounds which denigrate education or from a social culture where respect for the property of others and respect for others is not something of value.

To the amateur eye, this suggests that as well as working to maintain the prison, convicts should, as part of their sentence, experience some corrections in their education.  Learning the basics of reading and writing, some maths, some forms of help in rethinking their philosophy of life are more likely to produce more model citizens than leaving prisoners for hours on end, locked in their cells – and bored. Boredom is a great mischief maker.

This approach would cost money.  But what is better expenditure?  Money which allows individuals to become self sufficient and useful to society or money spent in incarcerating them for months or years with nothing useful to do and at a cost to law abiding citizens.  This is a waste of resources, manpower, individual lives and reflects a negative attitude of the authorities.

Someone once said if you want to know about a society look inside their prisons.  Perhaps, rather than thinking revenge, a natural response when a crime has been committed against you, think how help might make a more moral person of the individual.

For some individuals and their crimes, imprisonment is the only treatment.  The public has to be kept safe.  But for some of the irritating, nasty stuff, there are other answers. 

Rethinking the system might actually save the country money.