Hacker News Reader

Comment by sickpig | Hacker News Reader

The main function of prisons is to keep the criminals away from law-abiding society

Really? I thought it was about correcting/reforming.

The four recognized purposes of punishment are: deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and retribution. Which is primary, or even whether they are all legitimate is a matter of fierce debate.

So an 18 year old kid gets busted for a drug offense. He gets thrown in jail for several years along with hardened and violent criminals. His "rehabilitation" consists of an immersion in a world of criminality, and when he is finally released, he has a record that will stay with him for the rest of his life and severely limit his choices moving forward.

Yes, he's been reformed. Just not in a good way. Not in a way that does anything to try to fit him back into society.

Depends on the country maybe? Here in Brazil no one believes criminals can be fixed, here we want them away, locked up or dead.

They should change name from correctional facilities to something else then.

Joking aside, I think that using prisons just for isolation is a waste of tax payer money.

Just think about at the case at hand, we are wasting the money needed to keep this guy in jail for another 8 decades with no actual reasons.

edit: fix grammar

What's the alternative, in your mind?

Where, here in Brasil they are not called Correctional Facility!

In fact the only place where I saw "Correctional Facility" was in US-movies and series, I thought it was some fictional name or something like that.

It's not a matter of belief, it is a matter of demonstrable fact that some criminals are capable of completely reforming. To deny this is simply to deny reality.

(It is also clearly apparent that some criminals are unreformable - telling the difference a priori remains the hard part).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com