Rehabilitation vs. Punishment

I meant to say that while basic punishment is necessary, serving six lifetimes in prison is not any more of a deterrent than one life time, and is overly extreme. What I was trying to say was that extreme penalties are pointless, and that they can, in some cases, be sacrificed for rehabilitation instead. The exception would be if someone of a sane mind committed a serious offence and knew exactly what they were doing. And I would not have you believe that all prisoners do is work out, as I stated earlier, ". .. and although there may be some education systems is some institutions, how good these systems are and whether they are effective in any way is the main question. " I had also said earlier that the prisoners get working opportunities, which is beneficial. For a crime to occur, there must be two things, the actus reus - meaning the act - and the mens rea - "the guilty mind". So in some cases where a crime is committed, the person doesn't know what's going on at the time because of their mental condition. And although punishment is necessary, it can also be unfair, people not of right mental states shouldn't just be convicted of life in prison, it is not their fault they are mentally unstable. In Canada, there is a case of a man who had gotten drunk and lost his two daughters in a blizzard (. http://news.therecord.com...), but in this case, he admitted what he did was wrong and that had a problem and pleaded guilty. The man had the option of a sentencing circle (. http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca...), where the community, the man, a judge and a policeman have the chance to suggest what to be done with the accused. In this case, the citizens of the circle wanted the man to stay in the community and do community service and be rehabilitated in the community, take alcoholics anonymous, etc. The judge ignored the opinions of the sentencing circle and gave him three years in prison. I think that the man, since admitting his mistakes and wanting to improve himself as a person, should have stayed in the community. That way he could make noticeable progress and have to face the people in the community with shame and work to make those relationships better. In prison, the rehabilitation programs probably are not as extensive as the ones set up in the community, nor as personal. Another case is of a man who was on a greyhound bus and stabbed another man while the passengers and drivers were escaping the bus. The man was locked on the bus and he decapitated the other young man that was stabbed earlier, killing him. While what he did was clearly wrong, he was a schizophrenic and thought that the voice of god was talking to him, telling him the young man was a demon going to kill him. Last I heard, the case is yet to be resolved but I think that the man shouldn't be sent to life in prison, he should be put into a mental institution, and go through intense therapy. The chances of the man ever being stabilized is slim, but at least if there is a medical advancement and he is mentally stable, he can be introduced back into society instead of being forgotten about and wasting away in prison. So in conclusion, after fixing a flawed resolution, rehabilitation should be given to people in place of severe punishments. We should work to help and fix people who are unstable or going through a hard time in their life and made a mistake. Why can't we "sacrifice punishment for more rehab programs"?