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Do We Really Need Prisons

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Do We Really Need Prisons
DO WE REALLY NEED PRISONS The simple meaning prison is a place for the confinement of persons in law detention, espicially people who are convicted of crimes according to The American Heritage of the English Language (2000). The history of prison almost as old as history itself. At first, prison were not used as a punishment but as a place where people who were sentenced to capital or corporal punishment were kept for a short period of time. But as the time passed, it turned into a legal punishment. Today, imprisonment is the harhest punishmet a criminal is given except for death penalty and there are over nine million people in prison today. In todays world, imprisonmet is the most common punishment that is given criminals. Therefore, it has an important mission to achieve which is to keep society working regularly and to provide people with safer lifes. The main functions of prison in society can be divided into four. The first function of prison is retribution. The prison system aims to punish criminals and make them pay back for the harm they caused by locking them and limiting their freedom. The second function of prison is incapatitating which means seperating criminals from society thus preventing them from further crime. By doing this it is aimed to maintain a safer society. Thirdly, the prison system is there to deter people from commiting crimes. Prison have to be a warning to society to show that there are consequences for law breakers. Last but not the least, prison aims to rehabiliate prisoners and make them a part of society. As can be seen in the previous paraghraph society gave prison system important missions which are retrebution, incapaticing, deterring and rehabilitation. However prisons are not capable of achieving this missions; therefore, the prison system should be removed. The main reason why it is necessary to remove the prison system is that it is not working as it is planned to do and that it is not capaple of achieving missions


References: Evans, P. & H. (2005, March 12). Why can 't we reform our criminals? Renew America. Retrieved April 10, 2012 from http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/evans/050312. Glas er, D. (1969). The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Retrieved April 10,2012, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=454758. Prison. (n.d.). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 10, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council: Charting the Safe and Successful Return of Prisoners to the Community. Council of State Governments. Reentry Policy Council. New York: Council of State Governments. January 2005. The American Heritage of the English Language. (2000). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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