There has been a lot of talk surrounding prisons lately and the inhabitants there of. First of all there were complaints of overcrowding, then there were the plans for the construction of Super Prisons, which could contain well over double the amount of perps and none of the mess. However now they´re kicking around the idea of turning to other methods to deal with offenders, such as community service for example.
The main argument in support of this latest venture is that repeated short prison sentences do not have a positive effect on the prisoner. Short sentences will not help to rehabilitate them and just encourage them to re-offend. Mind you if the term ´Life Sentence´ actually meant life sentence instead of 10 - 15 years, or 8 years and parolled for good behavior.
If only the lesson had been learnt early on. Lock up the right people. Only lock up the individuals who are a danger to the public, like murderers and rapists etc. Those who commit fraud, those who steal... these individuals you can rehabilitate through community service and the like. If you get someone who has defrauded someone else, make said individual work to pay off the debt.
This way, if we lock up just those who pose a threat to society, surely that is a remedy for the over crowding of prisons. Of course, because of the sheer amount of offenders that there seems to be, no wonder the sentences are so short. They can´t keep offenders locked up too long as there are fresh ones waiting to take their place. Waiting lists for prisons, strange thought and rather depressing.
Of course there is another way... It would cost a hefty amount in the short term but the benefits would out weigh the cost... In the motion picture the Matrix, human beings are used as batteries for the machines as their main power scource. Now I´m not too sure about the scientific theory behind this idea... but... if there is a possibility that it could work...
Think about it, the most dangerous individuals in the country turned into human batteries and used to provide the Earth with power, while happily terrorise the virtual world they´ve been hooked up to. It would solve prison over crowding wouldn´t it? And they would be providing a service to society...
Yeeeeaaah.. okay then maybe not...
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