3 ms·

I don't think torture is better than prison. Maybe for first offenders, working with them helps in many cases more than just throwing them in prison. Many minor

• firic 8y ago
  Sure, working with people is good if you can somehow find a psychologist good enough to get criminals to voluntarily talk with them for however long necessary while getting paid as much as taxpayers want to pay. I highly doubt that most people who rob cars, burglarise people or commit fraud are simply mentally ill people who need someone to talk to. Some people only respond to punishment. And in the case of those people I think that a short and painful punishment (whipping) is better than a long and life altering punishment (jail).
  • dx034 8y ago
    Rehabilitation is a core part of the system in many European countries and some of them had to close prisons due to the lack of demand (e.g. Netherlands). You're right, some people only respond to punishment and defraud people for the fun of it. But that's the minority. America's outsized prison population is mostly drug related (either selling/possessing drugs, crimes while being high or committing crimes to be able to buy drugs). I don't say prisons are useless but you could probably cut prison population by 70%+ and have a safer society as a result. And a psychologist isn't expensive compared to a 1 year prison sentence.