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Punishment-Rehabilitation or Prison

Introduction

Punishment has been transformed from suspended rights' economy to unbearable sensations' art (Focault, 1977, p.11). It is handed out to criminals in order to teach them a lesson through which they could reform themselves, and is primarily aimed at preventing them from indulging in nefarious activities in the future. The main objective of punishment is to make recompense, restrain, rehabilitate and undermine (usually through incarceration-in order to cut off the wrongdoer's access to potential victims). However, out of all these objectives, only recompense is part of the definition of punishment, while the other objectives are not guaranteed outcomes. Therefore, it is very important to know which of the justifications for punishment is most appropriate, and helps the criminals realize the perils of crime and makes them see the error of their ways.

It is pertinent to note that while incarceration could prove to be beneficial in some cases, rehabilitation tends to work in most cases mainly because it is generally a process whereby an individual learns to reform him/herself through a comprehensive program, aimed at integrating the individual as an acceptable member of society.

Discussion

Merits and de-merits of imprisonment

Legal incapacitation, in case of a prisoner, is the prevention of the individual from exercising the right vested in him/her through imprisonment (Black's Law Dictionary, 1990, p.760). The two main functions of prisons nowadays, are custody and rehabilitation (Robinson et al. 1993, p 162-177). Society cannot afford to have criminals on the loose, who could pose serious risk to the public. Therefore, it is, at times important to imprison criminals, which serves as a means to protect the life, property and honor of the general public, by separating the offender from potential victims. Moreover, without prisons, society would be at the behest of dangerous criminals who would leave no stone unturned to create a situation of anarchy and lawlessness. Currently, there are around 1.8 million men in prison in the US.

However, empirical data available to us is mixed on whether imprisonment prevents crime. According to some researchers, prison capacity is inversely proportional to crime, in that increasing prison capacity decreases crime rate. For example, Spelman is of the view that doubling the prison capacity in the United States would bring down index crimes by 20 to 40 percent. Conversely, other researchers have come up with different conclusions, leaving an ambiguity in the relationship between imprisonment ...