The Need for Tougher Prisons Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Topics

   The purpose of the prison system was meant to be a deterrent to crime, as a preventative measure and to those who have already committed crimes, it is supposed to keep them from coming back. Obviously this did not work, today there are overcrowded jails and courts that look to any other way to punish a criminal besides jail time. The other options do not work either, they have not reduced the prison population nor have they created a sort of fear of being punished that a tougher system might do(Faugeron 5). I think the prison system should be made tougher, and that the alternatives to prison be used in cases where the crime was very small and the criminal would benefit from some other form of punishment than prison. If the criminal has done something so bad as to end up in prison I would expect that they were being treated in a just fashion. Instead of the system trying to teach inmates a lesson there's a law that says that "a convicted offender retains all the rights which citizens in general have, except such as must be limited or forfeited to make it possible to administer a correctional or federal agency"(Hawkins 135). In short they are real citizens except that the correctional facility decides when they eat and sleep. I think all prisons should take away the special privileges of prisoners because the system is supposed to deter criminals from committing crimes and instead are inviting them for extended visits. The only way criminals are going to get the point is by creating a prison system that does not allow anything special for the people who have committed crimes and gets back the root of the purpose for having prisons. Prisons first used the theory of "changing his values so that he will not commit similar offen... ...9: 37. Cohen, Adam. "A Life for a Life." Time. Mar. 8, 1999: 30-35. Faugeron, Claude. "The Changing Functions of Imprisonment." Prisons 2000: An International Perspective on the Current State and Fututre of Imprisonment. Ed. Roger Matthews and PeterFrancis. MacMillian Press LTD.: London 1996. Hawkins, Gordon. The Prison, Policy and Practice. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1976. Laurence, John. A history of Capital Punishment. Citadel Press: New York, 1960. "Questions and Answers About the Death Penalty." Daily Tribune. 9 Jan. 1998: A4. Palmer, Ted. A Profile of Corrctional Effectiveness and New Directions for Research. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1994. Ten, C.L.. Crime, Guilt, and Punishment. Claredon Press: Oxford, 1987. Vass, Antony. Punishment, Custody, and the Community. Sage Publications: London, 1990.