JUST A THOUGHT - ARE PRISONS A SYMBOL OF A PUNITIVE SOCIETY? PART 2.

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In order to keep the prison industry going, viable even, it is necessary to have as man of the nuisance and 'low value' 'serious offenders' committed to prison as possible. 

And, in order to achieve this, the 'be tough on crime and criminals' political and media lobbyists have to be busy. 

They might not be vociferous in opposing more liberal approaches towards the running of prisons.  

But, on no account do these lobbyists want to see society adopting a more liberal and enlightened approach towards the punishment of crime and the rehabilitation of offenders. 


The adoption of one which would result in imprisonment being used less, as a method of punishing people found guilty of committing crimes. With less people being incarcerated.

It is not necessarily the case that people need to be incarcerated for even 'serious' offences. 

The fact that an offence is serious, and that the offender is demonised for having committing it, does not really mean that he/she has to be imprisoned and given a long sentence. 

Particular circumstances should be used more in determining whether or not a person is incarcerated, and the length of time. 


Yes, I can hear some people saying that the law needs to be specific and predictable in its application.  

So that anybody who commits specified offence/s will know the exact kind and length of sentence they are likely to get. 

Those who take this line of argument might even say such specificity and certainty is necessary, if the sentence is to be effective as a deterrent. 

Yet others might argue that indictable offences need to be punished with a sufficiently long sentence to reflect their seriousness. 

To be continued!




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