Sentence examples for purpose of prisons from inspiring English sources

The purpose of prisons has varied over the years from a place to warehouse people and keep them out of society to a place to punish them to a place to rehabilitate them.

There should be a fundamental review of the purpose of prison, putting rehabilitation at its focus.

Reducing reoffending should, after all, be the primary purpose of prison.

"THE purpose of prison is punishment", declares the mission statement at the entrance to the California State Prison, in Los Angeles County.

Put like that, the whole-life sentence comes into focus: it has nothing to do with the possibility of reoffending, or the impossibility of rehabilitation; it is totally distinct from questions of parole, or even the purpose of prison.

The reintroduction of chain-gangs, or dressing inmates in pink uniforms and giving them mind-numbing work, are all popular.In a new book on prisons, "Going up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation" (Random House), Joseph Hallinan cites surveys showing that, 30 years ago, most Americans saw the purpose of prison as rehabilitation.

But the problem with the system is not racial bias; applying such draconian, hope-crushing sentences to non-violent offenders of any race is cruel and pointless.The main purpose of prison is to reduce crime, by keeping criminals off the streets and deterring others from following their example.

This goes to the heart of the four different purposes of prison: first, to punish the person who committed the unlawful act; second, to educate the person and hopefully rehabilitate them back into society; third, to protect society from any further harm that the person might do if free; fourth, to deter others who might seek to emulate the deed.

The purpose of every prison should be that each prisoner they release is less likely to commit offences than when they went in.

In the process, the organizers hoped, both staff and visitors would engage in a "re-imagining" of the very purpose of a prison: Is it punishment?

While our new curveless state schools will have the shiny, purpose-built sheen of prisons, we can take solace in the fact that class sizes are surging uncontrollably and that the teachers in charge of things now needn't bother with qualifications.