Rehabilitation ought to be valued above retribution in the United States criminal justice system

And for offering an excellent rebuttal to my case. To attack my value of Utilitarianism, the Con side has said there are cases where an action may be good for society, but is still obviously wrong. He was even kind enough to give me an example. Killing off elderly people would be a relief to tax-payers and help get the country out of debt. And I will agree that killing off people on social security would do these things. However, in the long run, is it really good for the society? What about all the families that are now grieving? And now that all these taxes are no longer needed, who's to say the government won't take this opportunity to implement new taxes? Also, the cost of a proper funeral and burial and other expenses that go into a death are a lot for one family to deal with. So sure, overall, taxes decrease. But families are in debt still and a community is left grieving. Therefore, this example is not good for society and is obviously wrong. If my opponent can give me another example I may take his argument about my value into account. The Con also says I have not provided an example where rehabilitation has worked. I have here a card which gives a specific example of rehabilitation. Denmark's Prison System Rupert Taylor, July 27th, 2009 "The Danish justice system is based on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Writing in The New Statesman (September 4, 2006) Nick Pearce reported that Denmark "does all it can to keep people out of jail, and once there, to prepare them for life back in the community. Its sentences are short, but its re-offending rates far lower. In Denmark, prison appears to work for the right reasons. The average Danish prison sentence is 6.2 months, with just two percent of Danish prisoners spending more than two years in jail. The hardliners of the lock-"em-up-and-throw-away-the-key school scoff at Denmark"s lenient approach to criminal justice. However, it seems to work. On July 2, 2003 Dan Damon reported for BBC News that, "While 55 percent of British prisoners will re-offend and come back to jail, in Denmark the re-offending rate is just 27 percent. " So, as we can see here, Denmark has been using rehabilitation for quite some time and it seems to be doing the job. I think after seeing the statistics, it's not that hard to see if this system works. And as for my opponents argument about rapists and marijuana smokers, in my first contention it says that people who commit violent crimes and are a threat to society should be locked up. Therefore, this argument is invalid. The Con also goes on to say that the 8th amendment prevents cruel and unusual punishment. And while I do not want this to turn into an argument about what punishment is acceptable, I will say that the 8th amendment is not effective in protecting against harsh punishments. For example, many will argue that the death penalty is cruel and unusual. Yet it's allowed in some states. We cannot rely on the 8th amendment for protection. To attack my contention one, my opponent says that the purpose of prison, according to the article, is just to protect society by locking dangerous people up. However, in my card, it says "Punishment, where productive, could still be employed through sanctions and local supervision of graduated intensity. " Is this not a form of rehabilitation? It goes on to say, "But instead of going to prison, low-risk offenders should stay in the community. This emphasis on results over retribution would bring many benefits. " The "results" being rehabilitation. As for my contention two, he says that the article never states that locking people up is a direct cause of the negative effects listed. Yet the first line says "Perhaps the most harmful result of needlessly incarcerating low-risk, nonviolent offenders is what it does to families, especially children. " I would like to point out the word "result. " Another word for result could be effect. And what is to blame for an effect? A cause. Now on to my third contention. The major attack is that I only focus on one crime, in one state. However, we can assume things aren't much different elsewhere in the country. He goes on to say "Rehabilitation may work in the case of drug use because people on drugs want to get off. " The idea that someone on drugs wants to quit is laughable and quite frankly, very naive. While it's a beautiful concept, drugs are addictive. Most people on drugs are hooked. I'll get a bit personal here and say my uncle has been on heavy drugs for the past 20 years. And now no one in the family speaks to him and we have no clue where he is because he ran off to a drug house and chose drugs over his family. I highly doubt he's going to jump at the chance to fix himself. And as for the major crimes listed, as I said earlier, harsher crimes will be handled differently then a drug charge. My opponent says this debate is a question of whether retribution or rehabilitation should be emphasized. And I think it's safe to say that with a rehabilitation policy, people get what they deserve, we are helping the society, and we are saving the country money. I used utilitarianism as a value because I love how simple and effective it is. Everything is right if it helps the greater good. And quite frankly, if something truly helps the greater good, it is right. And rehabilitation does just that.