Do prisons exist to punish or to reform inmates ?

Question

Thanks so much .

Answer 1

Punish.

Answer 2

I think inmates in prison learn how to do it better next time so that they don't get caught, but is meant to punish them.  

Answer 3

With the punishment, it's designed to be somewhere you don't want to go again, problem is, they coddle them to the point where that's all they know is the system... They don't teach them how to live on the outside, without getting in trouble.

Answer 4

I don't know, I guess primarily to punish them, with hope they will reform also.

Answer 5

In America, you exact revenge through punishing criminals.

In Canada, we concentrate on reforming them and re-integrating them into society.

Our crime rate is a tiny fraction of yours.

Answer 6

It depend on the govenment policy. Some country don't call it prison, they call it corrective reform centre.

Answer 7

its punishment but

its also supposed to be reabliation

i would say its school to most crims

Answer 8

I'm sure you could argue all day about that.

But I think that despite whatever it they're supposed to be for, the prisons as they're currently run actually serve to train and indoctrinate minor offenders for a life of serious crime.

And no I don't think they're "coddled" either.  

Anyone who envies the "coddled" lives of convicts should probably commit a serious crime so he can join the party.

Answer 9

Hoping to reform them by punishing this way!

Answer 10

Yes, I do believe that one of the reasons prisons exist is to punish those that act in opposition to the law. The law would not be able to continue its control and effectiveness if it would not take those individuals that do wrong and give them a consequence (such as prison sentence).

I also feel that with the creation of a prison it is a form of control upon the whole. It is a way to take those that are detrimental to society and put them someplace where they will be enclosed in a small space and not given freedom to continue to hurt the whole of the society. If a prison did not exist and you take a serial murderer the individual would still have access to the whole of the society and continue to behave his (or her) destructive actions, which over time that would have a domino effect and cause chaos in the whole.

There is also the aspect that prison is thought of a place to "rehabilitate" and change the mind and actions of the individual who has done wrong. That is a completely different can of worms I could open up and has its own complexity because there is truth that those in prison are not being rehabilitated, but have to deal with the worst of the worst and their behavior does not change.