Are prisons an effective method of rehabilitation?

Not really. They are necessary as a warehouse for violent offenders. +3

No, they are e-ffective methods of punishment.

A lot of people have the wrong angle on this. Prisons are a punishment and as such should be much more severe than they are at present (I don't want to go back there). The current fad of treating prisons as rehabilitation centres is plain silly. The law should be, first offence a warning or a fine, second offence a mandatory jail sentence, third offence hard time, you are not getting out for a fourth offence. This not only dissuades individuals from committing crime, it also keeps them away from the rest of the decent population, unable to commit anti-social crimes.

prisons are for punishment. any rehabilitation that occurs while there is coincidental. that's wrong. rehabilitate people and they pay taxes for life. punish people and they commit crimes for life. gee, let me think here what i want to see as a taxpayer and potential victim.

Not in the least. I have seen convicts refuse to leave when their sentence is up.

No. I think they are just places people are punished for whatever crime they did.

No. I work at a prison in Canada, and see little to no rehibilitation. There is programming geared toward this goal, but it doesn't seem to have much effect. Beyond this, prisoners live in duplexes with new appliances, nice furniture, watch cable on big screen tv's, get their own rooms, are allowed and have all the clothes, toiletries, etc., that you would find in the average middle class home, and have the opportunity to work an hour or two a day at a job that pays enough that many of them are leaving with thousands of dollars when released. Many of the women do not want to leave because the conditions and lifestyle is better than they have on the outside. We have some inmates who have re-offended for the sole purpose of returning.

I think they are a good step towards rehabilitation. But after being imprisoned for a few months to a couple of years I believe that depending on the situation they should be sent to a rehab, if possible.

No...there is no rehabilitation in there...!

I will tell you what one ex-convict told me.

"Before being caught, i did not know how to peel the door off of a certain type safe. after being arrested and found guilty, i was sent to prison. still wondering what i did wrong with that safe, i asked around in prison and located a person that told me what i did wrong and got caught.

After serving my time, i was released from prison. my newly-learned information from prison, i again went back to the same store and the same safe. this time it worked. i peeled back the safe door and the money was mine.....for a while. my next door neighbor turned me in to the police. said i was spending too much money. this was my mistake.

Here i am on my second stay in prison. i was convicted for the second burglary. wondering how i got caught and what i did wrong bothered me. so, i checked again around in prison for an answer. fellow inmate told me that i drew to much attention to myself by spending too much money and having no job.

He advised me now of How To Launder Money.

I am eager to try this, after serving my time now".

Rehabilitation? no.

Learning institution? yes

Prison is an institution for criminals of "how to and not to" get caught.

The justice / penal system is a complete and utter farce and waste of monies and humans. +5

No, more of a warehouse for people we don't want walking the streets.

Don't people in prison learn how to make ninja weapons out of butter knives and bombs from toilet water and old fruit? Somehow I think not.

It feed's criminals and give's them a bed to sleep !! :)

rehabilitation doesn't happen in prison.

no prison is a crime school. when they get out they have nothing to do but commit more crime which they would of learned in prison

Not really, no. More like effective training grounds!

I believe the leniancy in the modern system makes major purpose a questionable feat. So I will have to say no.. I don't think so, or at least not anymore.

Prisons are not the best place for an affective mthod of rehabilitation because in that sort of medium the waek cannot be protected against the malignant strong people including prisoners and some warders!

no
prison is a punishment

Evidently not. My state is releasing 24,000 immigrants, placing them in housing projects (apartments) and funding their training to learn english and some basic labor skills. Prisons couldn't do it so now private sector gets to do it. Haven't a clue why the immigrants aren't escorted to the border of their choice.

They are not. As many have mentioned they were never intended to be.
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People talk about rehabilitation as if we actually know how to do it, as if we could just take a criminal, spend X amount of dollars and X amount of time and *poof* we'd have a straight arrow taxpayer.
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Personally I think we should look into ways to keep prisoners more separated than we do. By allowing them out of their cells and into common areas we allow them to intimidate, harm, rape or kill each other and of course gain knowledge from other criminals as has been mentioned earlier.
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I suspect a lot of the perks - the comfortable furniture, tvs, etc are there mostly for the purpose of being taken away. That is to say they are to motivate prisoners to behave properly - you get to watch tv if you keep your nose clean.
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The problem is that such things soon become normative and over time it seems cruel to take away the right of every prisoner to watch tv. Plus it keeps them quiet - same reason so many kids get to watch more tv that is good for them.
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I look forward to the day that we legalize marijuana and can use the valuable prison space we're wasting on that particular victimless crime to better manage the more dangerous population.

No. The prison system isn't set up to be rehabilitative. We want people to rehab themselves, but the system is not equipped to achieve that goal.

OMG! I just had the exact same problem not too long ago. I so know what situation you're talking about. Good luck with this issue.

no, but they are a great way to get on the career ladder

no they dont rehabilitate - they do keep the creeps off the streets tho

If it was we wouldn't have so many prisoners in America.

we live in a world today ,to where you can not answer questions anymore with a simple yes or no.prisons are kind of like schools and hospitals,the people in there,and the people running them make or brake this answer.society runs things off of numbers,just like the buisness world,and the problem with the whole picture is human emotions and numbers barley coordinate with each other.it all goes back to the individual in these situations,(example)a women is senteced to 10 yrs for invol manslaughter on a dui wreck-chances are when she does her time she wont be back--and john boy who has been abused ever since he was a child,stayed in trouble as a teen,then turned to violent crime,he does a few years,chances are ,he will be back. so its a very grey area in my opinion.you wanna no what the biggest probelm with the jail system is, its to organized at the top.when those hand cuffs are put on you ,you become a number,and are put in a caseload that is to much to bear.the police,the da's,the court systems,and don't even mention public defenders have way to much red tape for the system to be fair.but,,maybe with dna and such now it can clear up some,,just ask texas.......

According to Ann Coulter, they are:

http://tinyurl.com/q9z8wj

hell...NO

Very very very ineffective. We can take some of those lost jobs and head them prison rehabilitation way. Are we so angry with criminals that we think we can just ignore them and it will go away? We release them with buddies they made in the system. It is asking for death.

No. Not as they are now.