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Prisons do not reform criminals. Many convicted gangsters, fraudsters and rapists, for example, return to society and commit their crimes again.

If you listen to their logic when they talk you will hear that, far from believing they have been cured of their particular penchant for felony, they believe, instead, that they have paid their debt to society.

Along with this belief is the sentiment that, therefore, their consciences are clear. With this in mind, they return to society believing that they have a clean slate.

Committing further crime is therefore in the realm of possibility as their chances of being caught are as good as not being apprehended. If they are caught, they simply go in and do time again.

For some criminals doing time is an occupational hazard and something that comes along with the job. They are not necessarily deterred from repeating offences as they are philosophical about the consequences.

In Western society we are largely tolerant of criminals and even allow them certain rights and privileges. They are accorded the innocent until proven guilty tag and have to be processed through the legal justice system before any action can be taken against them.

Once a conviction is obtained at great expense to the taxpayer, and great cost to the victims, they are then still entitled to delay the process by means of appeals and claims of unjust sentences or biased judges or juries.

If that is not bad enough, some criminals do not like living on the outside of jails. They will commit crimes when released so that they can be arrested and imprisoned. For some hoodlums institutionalized living is a way of life; and even has certain benefits.

I believe that if we want our prisons to be deterrents we need to make punishments much harsher. Corporal punishment should be used to a much greater degree and we should consider lopping off offending body parts, as they do in certain of the harsher regimes in the non Western World.

In addition, I would like to see a compulsory extra year added onto all sentences. It should take place at an institution of higher learning to educate miscreants in the rules of society and other such subjects as may help to turn their minds against crime.

The prison sentence itself should only be the repayment of the debt to the state. There should be a re-education period, followed by a financial payment of reparations to the victim or institutions that have been wronged and set according to the degree of severity of the crime.

Convicted criminals should be denied the vote for at least five years after their release, pending non-committal of any crimes again. There should be a public register of all criminals placed in a prominent place so that everyone can see who has committed what crime and where. Criminals who are regarded as unrehabilitated should have to pay much higher taxes and register with their local police depot to be monitored.

If all these things were done in addition to a prison sentence, we may just see a drop in the crime rate.

Learn more about this author, Laurence Newman.
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