Jails don’t HAVE to be places of cruel and unusual punishment, as they are currently in the US. The prisons in Norway, for instance, are humane—they almost look like real homes. The purpose of a jail is served (ensuring people can’t harm those in society) while diminishing side effects as much as possible and encouraging rehabilitation.
Example: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/europe/091017/norway-open-prison
Thats the problem, where do you draw the line between rehabilitation and punishment? Getting criminals out of society is one benefit of prisons, but so is creating deterent to commit crimes. If I was a poor person and prison was this nice awesome place full of luxuries, I might actually want to go to prison. Obviously thats an extreme example, but how much of a cost getting caught is certainly plays a role when you ponder commiting a crime.
In ancient societies, they had barbaric punishments for criminals. The crime rate was high and they were rarely caught. And when resources are limited, providing someone free food and shelter is to costly and starving people might actually try to get in. Not to mention they didn’t have any ways of rehabilitating people.
Personally I am in favor of more rehabilitation. There are alot of repeat offenders in jail, and most criminals are irrational and afffected by bias anyways, so trying treating them like rational agents doesn’t work.
In the case where someone wishes to commit a crime so they can spend time in jail, they’ll probably perform something petty, which isn’t TOO bad especially if they can confess and the goods be returned (or an equivalent). If social planning can lower the poverty rate and provide ample social nets and re-education for people in a bad spot in their lives in the first place, this thing is also less likely to be a problem (conversely, if more people become poor, prisons will be pressured to become worse to keep them below the perceived bottom line). Finally, prison can be made to be nice, but it isolates you from friends, family and all places outside the prison, and imposes routine on you, so if you desire control over your life you’ll be discouraged from going there.
Jails don’t HAVE to be places of cruel and unusual punishment, as they are currently in the US. The prisons in Norway, for instance, are humane—they almost look like real homes. The purpose of a jail is served (ensuring people can’t harm those in society) while diminishing side effects as much as possible and encouraging rehabilitation. Example: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/europe/091017/norway-open-prison
Thats the problem, where do you draw the line between rehabilitation and punishment? Getting criminals out of society is one benefit of prisons, but so is creating deterent to commit crimes. If I was a poor person and prison was this nice awesome place full of luxuries, I might actually want to go to prison. Obviously thats an extreme example, but how much of a cost getting caught is certainly plays a role when you ponder commiting a crime.
In ancient societies, they had barbaric punishments for criminals. The crime rate was high and they were rarely caught. And when resources are limited, providing someone free food and shelter is to costly and starving people might actually try to get in. Not to mention they didn’t have any ways of rehabilitating people.
Personally I am in favor of more rehabilitation. There are alot of repeat offenders in jail, and most criminals are irrational and afffected by bias anyways, so trying treating them like rational agents doesn’t work.
In the case where someone wishes to commit a crime so they can spend time in jail, they’ll probably perform something petty, which isn’t TOO bad especially if they can confess and the goods be returned (or an equivalent). If social planning can lower the poverty rate and provide ample social nets and re-education for people in a bad spot in their lives in the first place, this thing is also less likely to be a problem (conversely, if more people become poor, prisons will be pressured to become worse to keep them below the perceived bottom line). Finally, prison can be made to be nice, but it isolates you from friends, family and all places outside the prison, and imposes routine on you, so if you desire control over your life you’ll be discouraged from going there.