Prisons should focus on rehabilitating criminals

In a traditional prison system that focuses on punishment, criminals are deterred from committing crimes because they fear the punishment. If this was true than American would have no crime, however in reality this is not the case. America houses 25% of the world’s inmates [1] and has a largely retributive justice system (as seen by the death penalty, and their tough stances on crime [1]). Clearly, if a retributive system deters crime, why would the crime rate be so high? Another problem with rehabilitation in prisons is that it actually encourages criminals to commit crime. In general, criminals come from poor communities without a real chance for much more. Rehabilitation offers them a chance to get an education This is a reckless assumption that is not backed by stats. Education in America is also paid for by taxes, so there is no reason why someone should not be able to go to school plus student loans are always an option. Furthermore, my opponent fails to understand what rehabilitation is, as in rehab they don’t teach you job skills, but how to quit drug and alcohol addictions. Justice is lost in a rehabilitative prison system. My opponent continues to misunderstand what rehabilitation really is. My opponent also makes the claim that prisoners must be punished in order to receive justice. However, as I pointed out in R1 a system focused on rehabilitation will not get rid of punishment entirely, criminals will still be punished. However, they must be punished fairly and be given a chance to contribute to society (which is what justice is about). The final problem with rehabilitation is the public opinion. According to Peter Standford, the public opinion is that criminals are bad and will always be bad. Public opinion should have no say in justice. Furthermore, seeing as how public opinion is against criminals, that is an argument in my favour. America needs to give a chance to criminals to show that they have changed, not that they are still criminals. If people get out of jail and everybody is hostile to them, that will only turn them back to crime. Over 75% of people already think that courts are already too easy on criminals. Once again, what people think does not matter in a justice system. I will now move on to my own contentions. C1: REHABILITATION REDUCES CRIME Rehabilitation as opposed to harsher punishments is more effective at reducing crime levels. Our current system puts criminals into miserable cells with other criminals where they learn how to become better criminals. 2/3rds of criminals leaving jail will reoffend within 3 years with a more serious crime. [2] Experiments done in San Francisco jails show that a more intensive therapy and rehab program reduced re-offending rates by 83% and reduced crime in the jail to zero [2]. Clearly, teaching prisoners how to quit addictions, become a better person, and to take responsibility for their actions will help them contribute back to society, instead of being imprisoned over and over. Norway has a supreme amount of focus on rehabilitative justice system and has a per capita murder rate of 0.6, while the US has a per capita murder rate of 4.8. [3] One argument is enough to fulfill my BOP and affirm the resolution. A rehabilitative justice system will reduce crime, so prisons need to focus more on rehab. I look forward to my opponent’s response! Sources . http://www.lawlibrary.ie... . http://www.nytimes.com... . http://en.wikipedia.org...