Is imprisonment supposed to be rehabilitative?

[flint757]

Explorer I think you quoted the wrong thing in your last post. Either way my post said or was meant to say basically the same thing Axehappy said. It is supposed to be, but in practice isn't.

I honestly think a tiered system is best, but also if you aren't going to rehabilitate a criminal then they shouldn't be allowed to leave because reflection doesn't typically solve anything. Not to say it doesn't sometimes some people hate it so much they straighten up their lives.

[The Reverend]

Originally Posted by Explorer

The one thing I don't agree with is that incarceration is automatically tied to rehabilitation efforts.

From Wikipedia: Separate system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Separate system is a form of prison management based on the principle of keeping prisoners in solitary confinement. When first introduced in the early 19th century, the objective of such a prison or "penitentiary" was that of penance by the prisoners through silent reflection, as much as that of prison security. More commonly however, the term "separate system" is used to refer to a specific type of prison architecture built to support such a system."

Look at the last sentence from that blurb. All modern prisons descend from this architecture, which means that the philosophy of rehabilitation is built into prisons. I think you're using Russian and Chinese prisons as a sort of straw man; it'd surely be strange if totalitarian states were honestly concerned with rehab.

Incarceration certainly hasn't always had the rehabilitative aspect to it, but for the last two hundred years it has, at least in industrialized countries.

[Necris]

Someone who works as a correctional officer can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I am aware "Solitary Confinement" is now used mainly to keep the most dangerous/violence prone criminals out of the general population rather than to be rehabilitative so it is effectively a incapacitative punishment. They aren't being rehabilitated or deterred, their ability to continue to perform an action is taken away entirely.

[USMarine75]

Solitary serves several roles: It is mainly used for punitive reasons. Second, it serves as a form of behavior correction. Third, it serves as protective custody.