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Punishment or Rehabilitation?

Punishment or Rehabilitation?

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digsbe

digsbe

Truth will set you free
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Should the goal of our justice system be punishment or rehabilitation of criminals? The number of prisoners has been drastically rising. It's expensive to incarcerate individuals, and I personally believe we would have a better society and a more productive justice system if rehabilitation took precedence over raw punishment. What do you think is more important? Please explain
 
I think a good question is why are we throwing people into jail so often and for what. We do have one of the highest incarceration rates of any of the industrialized nations, either we have well more criminals or we are overzealous at throwing people into jail.

As for punishment/rehabilitation I think it depends really on the crime. Punishment is, of course, one of the primary reasons for jail. The entire purpose is to separate out people who have shown the desire to act against the rights of others from the rest of society, thus protecting the rest of us from those who would act violently against us. But it is possible to also have rehabilitation for those who choose/can be. The draw of including rehabilitation is that if you can do it, when you release someone back into society they'd be less likely to commit crimes.
 
digsbe said:
Should the goal of our justice system be punishment or rehabilitation of criminals?
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Punishment, how can you rehabilitate a pedophile, or forgive a murder?
 
Alfons said:
Punishment, how can you rehabilitate a pedophile, or forgive a murder?
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I believe that everyone deserves a chance. However, in the name of justice punishment should be severe for some crimes like rape and murder. My point is that our jails are too full, too many people are being incarcerated for petty crimes and I believe in most cases and for most crimes that rehabilitation would be best.
 
Rehabilitation definitely, especially for the people who are in there for non-violent drug crimes, which make up alot of the prison pop, and are constantly in and out of jail, rehabilitation could definitely help them.
 
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Your Star said:
Rehabilitation definitely, especially for the people who are in there for non-violent drug crimes, which make up alot of the prison pop, and are constantly in and out of jail, rehabilitation could definitely help them.
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TBH, I wouldn't throw non-violent drug offenders into jail in the first place. It's a waste of space and money. Fine them heavily, give them a lot of community service and you're good to go. In CO we had a prison population problem, we eventually threw out all the non-violent drug offenders. There were no negative repercussions.
 
Both.

I am for rehabilitation, not because I necessarily think they 'deserve' a chance, but because I believe the rest of society needs for them to be rehabilitated to make society safer. If they can't be rehabilitated, then we probably shouldn't be letting them out at all. Whether rehabilitation consists of simply making them regret their actions and not wish to return to jail because it is so awful, or we actively seek to rehabilitate through counseling, classes, life work skills training, higher education or whatever. I don't care what we choose, whatever works best to cause them to become law abiding, I am for.

I am for punishment because I believe it serves as a deterrent to marginal people who are tempted to commit crime, when they see that they might have to go someplace terrible. I also believe that society has the right to take well considered forms of revenge (as a group, not as individuals). And, as noted before, it might serve useful in the mix of things that we use for rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation vs Punishment is not, should not be, mutually exclusive.
 
Depends on the person and the nature of the crime.

Buddy of mine worked in correctionals for 35 years, he reckons there's no curing the rapists or the pedos.

But honestly depends on the crime, if a man, who otherwise has lived a good life, never hurt anyone, comes home to find his wife in bed with another man... And he kills them.

I think someone like that can be rehabilitated, because it was a crime of passion, and he isn't really a threat to others IMO :shrug:
 
digsbe said:
My point is that our jails are too full, too many people are being incarcerated for petty crimes and I believe in most cases and for most crimes that rehabilitation would be best.
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The small criminals should to pay more money as strafe, the severe ones to be incarcerated, but murders, child molesters, rappers etc. should face the death sentence.
 
Ikari said:
TBH, I wouldn't throw non-violent drug offenders into jail in the first place. It's a waste of space and money. Fine them heavily, give them a lot of community service and you're good to go. In CO we had a prison population problem, we eventually threw out all the non-violent drug offenders. There were no negative repercussions.
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I agree with this, with a caveat being that if you are a repeat offender you have to go through a rehab program outside of prison, but as the laws stand, I think that would best help the situation.
 
A. As a police officer for thirty years I saw only one successful rehabilitation program. It was called growing up. Some people grew up on schedule and some were still adolescents when they hit 75.

B. The forgotten, ignore, and really dumped on in our system would be the victims of crime. We reserve our sympathy for the criminals.
 
I think punishment should be priority.Rehabilitation is something that should occur within the last year or 6 months of an offender's sentence.
 
trying to rehabilitate criminals is like trying to teach a rock to swim.
 
Jetboogieman said:
But honestly depends on the crime, if a man, who otherwise has lived a good life, never hurt anyone, comes home to find his wife in bed with another man... And he kills them.
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If he lived a good life and would never hurt anyone other than the time he found his wife in bed with another another man does he really rehabilitation? Rehabilitation is the process of restoring someone to a useful and constructive place in society.
 Other than killing his wife who cheated on him and the guy she had an affair with,doesn't he already have a useful and constructive place in society?
 
digsbe said:
Should the goal of our justice system be punishment or rehabilitation of criminals? The number of prisoners has been drastically rising. It's expensive to incarcerate individuals, and I personally believe we would have a better society and a more productive justice system if rehabilitation took precedence over raw punishment. What do you think is more important? Please explain
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I made a hypothetical poll a few ago on this forum to see if punishment mattered to anyone if it was possible to rehabilitate someone with a pill. It was kind of disturbing how many had no regard for the victims and felt that the offender should just be immediately released after taking the pill.

http://www.debatepolitics.com/polls/35104-if-possible-rehabilitate-criminals-one-pill-11.html
 
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jamesrage said:
If he lived a good life and would never hurt anyone other than the time he found his wife in bed with another another man does he really rehabilitation? Rehabilitation is the process of restoring someone to a useful and constructive place in society.
 Other than killing his wife who cheated on him and the guy she had an affair with,doesn't he already have a useful and constructive place in society?
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A fair point.

I would argue that he should be incarcerated for a period of time.

But after killing in such a way, I do think you would need some kind of rehabilitation to change your state of mind.
 
OscarB63 said:
trying to rehabilitate criminals is like trying to teach a rock to swim.
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This stupid idea was born by Liberals because most of criminals traditionally support Leftists.It is wasting of tax money to try to rehabilitate gangsters.
 
digsbe said:
Should the goal of our justice system be punishment or rehabilitation of criminals? The number of prisoners has been drastically rising. It's expensive to incarcerate individuals, and I personally believe we would have a better society and a more productive justice system if rehabilitation took precedence over raw punishment. What do you think is more important? Please explain
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It should be based around rehabilitation for the most part. Give people the skills and therapy they need to be a peaceful productive part of society. For those who can't, lock them away from society. Don't do it to punish, though - do it because they can't control their anti-social impulses.
 
Jetboogieman said:
A fair point.

I would argue that he should be incarcerated for a period of time.

But after killing in such a way, I do think you would need some kind of rehabilitation to change your state of mind.
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dated a girl in college. her mother's husband killed his ex-wife after years of emotional abuse and blackmail. the day of the killing, they had been to court. he wrote her a check for $20K and she agreed to stop hassling him over visitation with their kids. 15 minutes after they left the courtroom, she called him and told him that she didn't give a **** what the judge said, he was never going to see his kids again. he flipped out, drove over to her apartment and broke her neck.

how is it possible to "rehabilitate" him? he spent the better part of 20 years in prison. that was pure and simple punishment. he needed no rehabilitation, since the source of his "problem" no longer existed.
 
Alfons said:
This stupid idea was born by Liberals because most of criminals traditionally support Leftists.It is wasting of tax money to try to rehabilitate gangsters.
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You just don't know what it feels like to be a gangsta :shoot
 
Your Star said:
You just don't know what it feels like to be a gangsta :shoot
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For me is only important the feelings of victim; the emotions of gangsters could be flashed down the toilet.
 
Alfons said:
Please:

Guess What, Felons Favor Democrats - FoxNews.com

Felons Voting Illegally May Have Put Franken Over the Top in Minnesota, Study Finds - FoxNews.com
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You didn't read your own links. In Franken's case, they cannot pin that "all the felons" voted for him. The felon vote to margin of victory is way so close, that it would have had to have been almost 100%.

Look though at the percentages: 341 people in Minnesota is not a lot of people. It's doubtful that any amount of law enforcement could have stopped that. There are that many murders in Minneapolis between Senate elections, and the police can't stop all of them. Maybe if Coleman had been a better Senator when he was there, it would have been different. As it was, he was only elected in the first place because his opponent was killed in a plane crash before the election.

But yeah, it's only because of felons.
 
samsmart said:
It should be based around rehabilitation for the most part. Give people the skills and therapy they need to be a peaceful productive part of society. For those who can't, lock them away from society. Don't do it to punish, though - do it because they can't control their anti-social impulses.
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Exactly. Lesser crimes should work towards rehabilitation, while the more heinous crimes should be geared towards sequestration, not for punishment, but for safety, and sanctity.
 
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