It's an interesting topic, one I've been interested in lately.

The function, and least in theory of prison are three-fold, number one is prevention. No-one wants to go to jail, because it is not a nice place. For that to happen, prison must not BE a nice place to begin with. Going there cannot be a trivial experience.

Number two is punishment for your crimes, you are supposed to emerge from jail with the express desire to never, never come back again. Once again, effective, ex-cons don’t want to go back.

Number three is rather moot to this discussion; it’s for the storage of world-class bastards who we never want to see again. In this respect prison is quite effective, we don't.

So, where it all goes wrong is pretty much here, prison WORKS, but not in the right fashion. We want to discourage those inclined from criminal acts through the fear of prison. What actually happens in a significant number of cases is that criminals are quite determined to never go back to prison, but not deterred from the actions that would put them there.

Instead, through both desperation (The stigmatism of being a criminal, the same lack of life-skills that lead them to the criminal life in the first place) and new-found skill (prison is both a harsh learning environment and provides face-time with far more experienced, hard criminals) many will engage in brutal, effective and violent crime, minimising their chances of getting caught and maximising the pay-off.

For example, a man who simply walks into a store with his face covered and guns down the attendant without a single word is far less likely to be caught, and the kind of lack of empathy that gives a man that kind of inhumanity is more than likely learned in an environment like prison.

However, offenders must be punished; there must be punishment for crime. So, what's the solution?

It's a toughie.

Personally, I'm of the opinion of creating an entirely new prison system, where each prisoner is given a wider personal area, more humanising conditions and only allowed interaction with other prisoners in a constructive environment (classroom, workshop, sport, ect). The catch is that the prisoner will not be released until he has paid a monetary value, determined by the court to be fair compensation for his crime, as well as having paid for the cost of his imprisonment by the state (or company, in the case of a corp prison).

That money is earned by production accrued in the prison; no rich man will be buying his way out. Whatever work (and there is a lot of options here), the prisoner will be engaged in a productive activity, in a relatively safe and interactive environment, his mental and physical health a guaranteed right to him.

This is a rough idea, and I'm open to criticism, ideas, ect.

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