[Link] Why prison doesn't work and what to do about it

We had a long discussion about prison on LW last year.

I've disagreed with people before on this topic; I feel that the primary goals of the system should be rehabilitation (so that society can make productive use of former offenders) and deterrence. I've discussed it with people who seem to argue the primary goal is punishment - perhaps this is intended to work as deterrence, but it's clear that this is not the case. A "you were bad, now you get punished" mindset seems to be at work, rather than one seeking to solve the issues. The notion that people who committed crimes should not be allowed to learn new skills or seek ways of bettering themselves because they are being punished is not uncommon, even though this removes an opportunity for people to try and get out of a criminal lifestyle.

On the other hand, recidivism is pretty high in Ireland, and I've heard that here and elsewhere, prison is practically a criminal education centre. Sentences are often inconsistent - I'll try find some examples of weird sentencing - and often cut short.

The only conclusion I can draw here is that current system is a total mess, and needs significant overhaul.

I'm okay with capital punishment for particularly serious crimes. There was a good post on this recently.

Final point: I've heard it said (though cannot find figures on this) that in parts of the US, the time spent waiting on death row is so long, that your life expectancy is higher if you murder someone when you're in your early twenties than if you stay on the streets. Interesting that choosing execution could be seen as a rational choice.

Nobody has come up with any system of punishment that provably provides deterrence or rehabilitation. When someone does, there will be some point in complaining the existing alternative doesn't. A criterion all alternatives fail is not a basis for a decision.

How about security? Well, yes, prison isn't particularly necessary for rendering corporate fraudsters not a threat, but, how much of the prison population is such? For the ordinary run of thieves and violent criminals, prison does prevent further predation on the populace for the duration of their stays. But would we be safe if they went free? The author claimed only a "small minority" of prisoners are habitual dangers. Well, the rate at which prisoners released in 1994 were re-arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years was 67.5%, and the re-conviction rate was 46.9%. That doesn't seem like a "small minority" to me. USDOJ Recidivism of Prisoners Released study

The author mentions that if security were the goal, "people found guilty of attempted murder would go to prison for as long as murderers." Well? The Model Penal Code, in fact, does provide the same punishment for both attempted and successful crimes down the whole list. This is not consistently implemented by the states, but it is a standard that most codifications have been moved toward in the last 50 years.

And when we get to his claim that imprisonment is more severe a punishment than execution, well, certainly the people facing execution seem to fairly consistently prefer extending their prison stays to death. That would seem to be a better indication of the severity from the convict's perspective than the author's imagination.