Prompt: People think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others believe that there are other alternative solutions for reducing crime. Ċ Discuss both views and give your opinion on this topic.

The question of whether criminals should spend longer prison sentences or having alternative punishments has been always controversial, there are people in favour of both views. I strongly believe that longer terms are not effective and this has been proven in systems such as the American. In the following essay, both perspectives will be analysed and discussed. Ċ On the one hand, some people argue that longer times in jail help to reduce crime indexes, however, it might not be the case. As an example, the United States penitentiary system is the largest in the world despite having the longest sentences, they even have executions as punishment, nevertheless, they have one of the biggest rates of crime repetition in the world. This means that severe punishments do not guarantee higher levels of safety. But, in spite of the fact mentioned above, longer sentences could help to decrease crime if that time in prison was used wisely, and criminals were educated to be reinserted in society. Ċ On the other hand, alternative punishments could be more useful to lower crime levels. To point that, some nordic countries like Norway, have more relaxed systems in which criminals spend shorter sentences but they are both used as workers and re-educated, besides, they have psychological assistance during their time behind the bars. Furthermore, depending on the crime, some inmates could serve social service instead of being useless in jail, there is plenty of work that can be done to repair the damage they did in the past. Having said that, those alternatives could be better for society and even cheaper for governments. Ċ In conclusion, even though there are some arguments to support longer terms to reduce violence, in my opinion, the best is to try different solutions in which inmates are educated and serve the community that they affected in the first place.