Prisons do work

The argument

The defence of prisons here is made on a narrow basis: not that they reform anyone, but that they protect the public, and that this is the function they were built to perform. The main goals of a prison are to keep the public safe from danger and to punish offenders for violating the law, and on this argument it discharges both. The best way to protect the great majority of a population is with prisons, because incarceration achieves the protection directly rather than by way of any change in the person incarcerated. That distinction is what the argument turns on. Rehabilitation programmes have been installed within the prison system, and abolitionists point to their limitations as evidence that prisons fail. Proponents accept the limitation while rejecting the inference. Many violent criminals will continue to break the law regardless of what programmes are offered to them, and for that group no amount of rehabilitative effort changes the risk they present. What changes the risk is separation, which works whether or not the offender has been reformed by it. The benefit of that separation is felt by everyone outside. By keeping violent offenders apart from the rest of the population, prisons allow people to go about their lives without fearing them — to move around their neighbourhoods and conduct their affairs without organising their behaviour around the risk. Society functions normally and safely because the people who would make it unsafe are not at liberty within it, and that ordinary functioning is easy to overlook precisely because it is what the system is already delivering. Because prisons do work to keep the public safe in this way, the argument concludes, prisons should not be abolished.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Instead of simply locking away criminals to punish them for their crimes, prison systems should work to develop rehabilitation programs to help prepare offenders to be a law-abiding member of society once released. Many people in prison suffer from mental health issues, drug addiction, and alcoholism. Once released, many people commit another crime within a short amount of time, landing them back in prison. Prisons should work to improve the lives of their prisoners so they do not re-offend and repeat the circle of crime.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] Prisons should work to improve the lives and behavior of their inmates.