Theories of criminal justice cannot function without releasing prisoners

[wuushew]

Our knowledge of recidivism rates for violent crimes such as murder and rape are based on the fact that people who do not serve life sentences can and do commit crimes when released.

Many believe biology to be a current determinant of criminal behavior. Surely this is not enough of a satisfactory answer due to the differences in crime across countries and cultures.

While biological based explanations may remain static barring wholesale alterations of the human genome, cultural and economic realities can change in relatively short spans of time. The inability to constantly test these assumptions means the actual practice of criminal justice will drift from some formulated ideal.

Also much like many unsafe recreational, medicinal and industrial activities, incarceration incorporates an element of cost benefit analysis. On a continuing basis can this country afford to house and provide lifetime accommodation for each violent criminal convicted annually? Would this country commit the necessary financial resources given its irrational hatred of taxation?

[democrank]

1. Commit the funds? Probably not.

Problems with our criminal justice system are so complex and it will take more than a call for revenge to resolve them.

I saw an interesting program recently about mentors who had overcome their behaviors (domestic violence,drug addiction,etc.)and returned to prison to counsel those still incarcerated for similar problems. The recidivism rate for these particular people was very low. That was a welcomed bit of good news. Of course this approach won`t work for everyone.

I`m sure a cost benefit analysis has to creep into the long-range scheme, but the idealist in me wishes we could identify then attack some of the socio-economic causes of criminal behavior. What have we now? Over two million people behind bars? Just an awful, awful problem.

[sweetheart]

2. Reformative vs Puntative justice

The former presumes that we can "heal" the criminal to rejoin society
and in the small number of cases where this is not possible, then the
criminal is permanently incarcerated. Rather the US justice system has
come to be the latter, where the prison system is not designed to
get people ready to rejoin civil society, but rather as a period of
rape and torture from which they emerge less prepared for civil society.

Personally, i would not have a problem with chemical castration for
cases of violent rape, and similar biological alteration for murder.
Then such criminals could be let out without fear of recidivism.

Prison is cruel and unusual to my eyes, and i would rather use a system
of satellite tags, and biological alterations. Murderers can have their
achillies tendons severed and their hand-tendons cut. Then they'll be
disabled, and not be able to re-murder, but rather be dependent on a
much smaller portion of state aid then while in prison.

The prisons ARE the problem. There must be some method to end the
need for the prisons to start with... a non-custodial philosophy of
in-situ social return.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Simpler questions are...

why our crime rate is so much higher than other counties, and why still others are so much worse than ours. Few have spent much time analyzing the causes of crime, and those who do are usually shouted down by someone.

How do we define crime and decide the punishments or corrections?

No, we are not going to spend the money to tailor prisons to the individuals we stick in them. We don't tailor schools or jobs for people we like, so spending money on productive prisons would be way down the list. Productive programs to reduce crime or properly rehabilitate are even further down the list.

Even if the cost-benefit analyses show, as they have shown in other countries, that long sentences and supermax prisons aren't the answer, it's just not the American way.