To say that prisons should be abolished altogether?

[ThisAvidOchreEagle]

Rehabilitation and community justice models work better than locking people away. AIBU to think prisons are outdated and ineffective?

You do understand the concept behind the word serial in serial killer?

I agree for many cases people shouldn't be in prison and there are better ways to rehabilitate people but there will.always be people that society has to protect itself from.

Prisons are definitely needed. They need to be harsher but i agree need an element of rehabilitation. In fact we need to build more prisons!

We need Prisons to be more like they are in El Salvador. Brutal and harsh.

Exactly. Not everyone can be rehabilitated.

I agree to a point. I think it would be niiave to say we could get rid of prisons entirely, but they should be reserved for violent, dangerous offenders.
There are others in prison who could be better rehabilitated in the community so they could remain in their homes without losing children/ jobs which costs society more in the long run - especially in the case of women who are sole carers for their children.
Some offenders should always be jailed for the protection of the public.

I’d go the other way and have more prisons and come down harder on criminals personally. Look at how the megaprison in El Salvador has transformed the country. People feeling safe and happy for the first time in decades. Violent crime down 87% and government popularity surging.

I think you are seriously underestimating how much the general public want criminals out of society (and punished) and how little empathy they have for them.

I think you don't have a clue.

I know of 18/19/20 year olds in the area who have been arrested MULTIPLE times for knife carrying and actually stabbing people ... who still walk around freely after random nights in lock up. Rehabilitation will do fuck all for their attitudes and behaviour.

James Timoson I think said a third of prisoners shouldn't be there, a third absolutely should be there, and the remaining third need to be somewhere rehabilitation focussed, eg open prison, tagged and on licence. So yes I agree that for the majority, prison is not the best solution - rehabilitation better for most, for the perpetrators and society as a whole.

Ah yes those highly effective prisons in El Salvador - known for its low crime rate and lack of repeat offending!

it goes without saying, they don’t work

I agree that rehabilitation and other forms of justice are better. But there's no point pretending they are appropriate for all types of crimes or all criminals.

I like to think we are more civilised than that.
I don't think legalised violence, brutality and cruelty has ever resulted in less crime

As long as Ian Huntly can move in with you OP 👍

Another bitchplop and run goady thread
<sigh>

No. I want more people in prison not less,

We barely imprison any rapists, when the very few that make it to trial are actually found guilty, the useless article of a judge decides that it would be harmful for the poor sex criminal if they had to suffer imprisonment.

When you say rehabilitation and education, how do you actually see that working in real life? Why do you think someone who has made the decision to cause harm to other people can even be taught right from wrong? It's not like there's actually any confusion over whether or not it's right to, for example viciously sodomise an 11 year old girl. No one actually thinks that that is acceptable and legal behaviour, so to do it is to knowingly and deliberately violate and abuse a child, what would you do to teach that person to not do it again?

You ok to have them next door to you OP?

YANBU as long as we bring back capital punishment alongside.

Some prisoners, in my view, can never be rehabilitated. Paedophiles. Rapists. Serial killers. Domestic abusers. Those are just a few examples. So, no I don't think abolishing prisons would work. I'm really looking forward to you coming back and explaining how it would work OP. But I have a strange suspicion you won't be be back.

I think prisons need massive reform, and far far fewer people should be sent to them, but we do still need them for the few dangerous individuals who cannot be reformed or who do not want to be.

"Work better"? Who for?

Keeping dangerous people locked up so they can't hurt law abiding people works really well from my perspective.

The stupidity/naiveté of believing that all violent offenders can be rehabilitated nearly always results in more people being victims of crime.

There are people who end up in prison often repeatedly because they cannot fend for themselves outside of prison but there is no provision to support those people.

Yanbu - to an extent. That the Scandinavian countries which focus on rehabilitation not punishment (and have liberal prison systems) have significantly lower reopening rates. When I say "significantly", the statistics are incredible.

But we live in a country where politics is won by demonising entire groups of people, inciting us to fight each other, so it's not going to happen here anytime soon.

I'd love to see massive reform of our criminal & justice system. Regardless of my personal feelings about wanting to certain criminals punished, if you look at the evidence the way to achieve a safer society is to follow the Scandinavian examples.

The criminal justice system in the UK doesn’t work, we all know that, there needs to be a big re-think, particularly with both crime prevention and rehab.

Harsh prisons do not reduce re-offending, however we do know thay in countries where prisoners are treated well, have access to high quality education, healthcare, counselling and support to find work upon release re-offending is much lower.

In the UK adults who serve less than a year have a re-offending rate of over 50%, in the UK re-offending rates are increasing. Some countries where prisoners are supported to change re-offending is low, in some places as low as 16%.

If people actually want to reduce re-offending they would want support to both reduce crimes being commited, but to also support offenders to make better choices upon release. People who don’t want that don’t actually care about crime reduction, they just get a kick out of being unpleasant.

I don't disagree for most crimes but for sex offenders/rapists and paedophiles, I don't think you can rehabilitate. I don't agree with the death penalty but truly, I don't think they should be free in society.

God no, an awful idea.

Some people are put away for the safety of the general public and that's the way it ought to stay.