by Noone

Created on: September 07, 2008

The real question is do we need an alternative to our present prison system. Obviously, there are alternatives. We could turn them into thailand style prisons, or we could turn them into playgrounds. Maybe we could beat the prisoners daily, especially those little old ladies that didn't pay their council tax.
But do we want to do either of those things?
The thing most people fail to understand is that the justice system is not supposed to be based on revenge, and personally, I don't wish to live in a country where it is. A prison is a place where people who have committed crimes go to be punished, by being locked up for 16 hours a day,(That is there punishment, they are locked up for years, they are not there to be beaten, and treated like crap) to be helped to be rehabilitated to best of the ability of those working within the prisons, and to keep the public safe from these people while they are still considered a danger.

Often I hear people say 'They've got it better than us, I might as well become a criminal.'
Yet for some reason, they stop at that. They don't become criminals...Why? Why on earth would you not strive to have what you believe is a better way of life?
How do people come to this conclusion? Because inmates have a pool table, and a Ps2 they can play on?
I've said it myself in the past before 'They've got it better than us'
But for some reason, I've never become a criminal so I can get put in prison. But why? As they, afterall, are living in such luxury.
Maybe its the being locked up in a small room with another criminal for 16 hours a day that puts me off, it might be the work I'm forced to spend 8 hours a day doing for a very small amount of money. Possibly it is the thought of coming out with no job, no respect, and no future. Although I like the idea of playing pool with my fellow inmates at the weekend, and maybe even being able to play on a Ps2, that are so rare here in the outside world, I decided to settle for the pub at weekends and saved frantically for my very own games console.

Instead of looking toward prisons as an answer to crime, to deter people from committing crimes, and to ensure they don't commit them when they are let out maybe we should start to look at society as a whole, education, and what leads people to become this way.
No baby is a criminal, no baby is a bad person. Every person is a result of what their society has created.

Learn more about this author, Noone.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.