Do you agree or disagree that our corrections system fails to rehabilitate and fails to deter crime?

Question

Do you agree or disagree that our corrections system fails to rehabilitate and fails to deter crime?

Answer 1

I agree, its more like a warehouse to keep unruly people away from the general society

Answer 2

Since the actions required to accomplish these two goals are virtually mutually exclusive (i.e., methods used to rehabilitate are radically different from those used to deter) one should not be surprised that this statement is true.

Until we adopt a corrections policy that truly is singularly aimed, instead of taking the shotgun approach to having multiple "goals" we will continue to fail at all of them.

Answer 3

Our corrections system does have it's shortfalls. The greater failure is in our judicial system. I saw a case where a 38 year old man raped a 12 year old girl, and he got 2 months in jail. Two months.

   That poor girl will face her fears everyday, for the rest of her life. And the man walks free, to do harm again. Justice? No.

   Our system will continue to fail, because we allow it to fail.

Answer 4

100% agree!

Answer 5

They need to decide one way or the other which it's going to be! Either punishment or rehab! You can't have both!

Answer 6

Agree

Answer 7

I agree.

Answer 8

I worked in CA Corrections for several years.  It does not work.  Correctional Officers are nothing more than glorified babysitters.  I had one guy that was literally out on the streets for 2 hours before he was brought right back for beating up a bus driver.

Answer 9

agree...but I also don't think they were designed to rehab...rather to PUNISH..and THAT, it does

maybe punishment alone is a deterrent??

at least the death sentence is..

Answer 10

AGREE!

They fail!

Answer 11

Agree for the most part.

Answer 12

If you're speaking of the US, we don't rehabilitate, we punish.  Jail time definitely deters crime.

Answer 13

Agree.  Prisons are pestholes that breed more and worse criminal behavior.

While I stand against the death penalty in general, someone explain to me the rationale of allowing a convicted, confessed murder to live the rest of his life completely supported by the government?

Answer 14

I agree. From personal experience, I have seen someone incarcerated because she 'violated her probation' while IN THE HOSPITAL!!

This is not a violent criminal who raped or murdered someone. It's a 60-year-old mentally ill woman who suffers from recurring depression exacerbated by long-term chronic alcohol abuse and who has also been diagnosed with symptoms of bi-polarism and schizophrenia. She has now sat in a deplorable jail in Allen County, Indiana for 98 DAYS with little care for her physical and mental illnesses.

Not the judge, the public defenders in the case, the court, the community corrections people, the jailers, the sheriff's department or the legal aid system bothers to return my phone calls, respond to my letters, or do ANYTHING to alleviate this injustice.

Oscar Wilde once wrote: "One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime".

This woman has lost everything: her home, her ability to work as a nurse when (and if) she's ever released; her driver's license...and she's $56,000 in debt all because of an insensitive, incompetent, uncaring 'system' where she's been lost in a catacombic labyrinth of legal paperwork and neglect. I fail to see how putting a 60-year-old mentally ill woman in jail benefits her - or the community-at-large. It is a travesty - and a mockery - of what is supposed to be a fair and compassionate system of justice in this nation.

Read this month's "Mother Jones" magazine; there's an excellent article about our failing corrections system. -RKO-  06/18/08

Answer 15

is the correctional facility at fault or society?

are you going to hire an ex-con to work for you????

Answer 16

Agree- the evidence is pretty strong

Answer 17

I agree, but I don't think that they are meant to. Prisons are a big business. They like repeat offenders - more money. The Congress has passed laws that make sure the cells stay full. They get big bucks from lobbyists that represent the private prison industy. There's no concern for what's best for the average citizen.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2797...

Answer 18

I agree, they should put more people to death, That deters crime and also keeps people from doing more bad things, plus its a lot cheaper than keeping them in prison for life.

Answer 19

I agree.... our corrections system needs some work.

Answer 20

For many people it fails completely to prevent crime.  Some see it as honorable, as part of gaining merit with their peers.  I knew a girl once who wouldn't date a guy unless he's been to jail.

If thats the case, jail doesn't scare them or deter them.  Many times they still commit the crime and end up in jail again.  Figures range from 33% of prisoners returning to jail in 12 months, to 50% within 3 years.  For these people the prospect of jail does nothing.  

So, Good enough right?  Or should we maybe rethink this system of non-rehabilitation a little?

Answer 21

Of course it fails.

It isnt about correcting.

It's about making people feel bad, and enjoying making people feel bad. And thats ALL its intent is.

And the sheer amount of our own populace that we currently have in cages (1 out of 100, more than any nation does or has (except Stalin)),   has happened because everytime a politician wants to get elected he has to pretend there are some scary monsters ("criminals") (a new demographic of poor people (dfenseless against the attack) to vlilify as such)that he's going to save you from (I'll be "tough-ER on crime"he'll promise. And because - "My opponent let a scary monster loose! (shocking)"....((so h**l save you from weak UNpunishing enough opponent)

How do you like male politics??

they did this, and we fell for it untill it got this far.

will it stop. will it turn around??

not untill people take their government back from the robbers and cagers and other-country wrecking mass murderers that have stolen it - and all our money - from us.

and that doesnt seem to be likely to occur soon! because so many are so brainwashed they dont recognize what i just said is what is(they'd label it 'a bit extreme') well, good parrots should get a cracker, and more neighbors in cages, and more national debt, so higher gas prices then!