Refermation and Vindication. Both of these purposes serve to protect society aswell, as someone who is reformed won't harm the public again, and someone who feels justice has been done will bear no grudge. Off topic but i feel people shouldnt be locked up among serous criminals when they have been caught drunk of shoplifting or any petty crimes a few times. Community service would be much better for thses sorts of crimes as it benifits society more, is cheeper and the offenders won't learn bad habits in prision.

Restitution, incarceration, reflection, and possibly rehabilitation. It should not be a day care center for crimminals, malcontents, gang members or dope dealers. Warehousing crimminals does not work.

punishment and rehabilitation.

Hopefully to provide the convicts with the resources they may need in order to explain to them just how their crimes affect their victims and hopefully make them undertsand how wrong their wrogdoing is, thereby hopefully instilling within them a stronger sense of right and justice. Notice the large number of hopefullys. I think this idea can realistically never be achieved with 100% success, so in reality it is a place for punishment and isolation from the rest of the world.

What the purpose of prison should be to help people re-abilitate themselves.But the stark reality is that they are shoved into cells are left alone.How can someone stay out of prison without guidence.The taxpayers pay for prisons and with no re-abilitaion taking place inside,we are wasting our money.All that is happening is prisons are privitized,and corporations build the prisons for profit, offering no solutions just more problems and more prisons.I think it is immoral for big companies to make a profit on the misery of others.

Not to Live.

The sole purpose of prison is to attempt to repair the deficiencies in the inmate and return them as productive members of society. Education, work skills, deferred gratification, treating others with respect, and self-discipline are stressed.

To separate "Hardened Criminals" from the rest of society.

The purpose should be to punish the crime and rehabilitate the individual. The first step for this to be successful in any meaningful way is to understand what constitutes a punishment, and what is acceptable as a punishment. Just now incarceration is deemed the punishment in itself, as it removes the individual from society, making society safer for a while and stopping the freedom of the individual. However, these people very quickly get used to the jail-life, where they can read, play, exercise, watch TV, and many other things, without paying a penny or having to work for their privileges. This sends the wrong signals to many criminals - that doing wrong doesn't deprive you anything but the freedom to roam. Why it's even easier to get drugs inside than outside prison. The second area is rehabilitation. How can this be effective when people from different crime backgrounds are incarcerated together? If I'm a compulsive embezzler then my rehabilitation is different from a murderer's, so prisons should specialise in a certain type of criminal. One prison I know houses murderers and paedophiles. These CANNOT be treated the same. So if it's going to be effective, prison should give the good things in life only as rewards to encourage the right behaviour, and should specialise in rehabilitating a specific type of individual. Then they might be worth the money we pump into them.

What should be the purpose? Well you already no the answer to that. This Q. to the avarage person is more retorical then a straight up Q. I think the Q. you ment to ask is, why does it seem like the prison system is failing??? Well i can tell you my thoughts based on being a formal inmate. In my my opinion it does work. The problem with the system as a whole is... after the inmate (prisoner) has gone through the system he is now a convicted felon. When that badge gets placed on your chest it widely limits that persons ability to reallisticly live life to the fullest. They soon realize that the thought of going to school to change their ways and really become sombody seccesful is over. Nobody would give a convicted felon the kind of job that would help them steer away from the stress of knowing that, for the rest of their lives there will always be an opening at the McDonalds drive thru. And that alone can make you lose all hope of a real life. And all of it is because the law says you have to have a record with you for the rest of your life. People always say oh dont worie about it its in the past... That does'nt work in the real.

At present ,it seems only to be a very place to punish and isolate those who have been commited convicts.

Keep people who are desperate to be criminals away from people who are desperate to be rid of them! Secondly, rehabilitation, more from within than without.

Prison should be about rehabilitaton and for punishment purposes. People should have the right for counceling etc... but also be held accountable for their actions.

Rehabilitation!!

Preferrably to rehabilitate, but at the very least, to separate the perpetrators from the rest of society.

Rehabilitation, deterence, and retrebution.