> Our prisons should protect the public If this is priority number one then rehabilitation follows from that. Rehabilitating prisoners to minimize the risk of

> Our prisons should protect the public If this is priority number one then rehabilitation follows from that. Rehabilitating prisoners to minimize the risk of relapse and continued danger upon release to society carries the greatest benefit for protecting the interests of the public as a whole. You can argue that locking people away forever is better for protecting the public, but that is ludicrously expensive and deprives the public of tax dollars that could go to improving public interests such as a strong economy. Releasing prisoners and letting them work also boosts the economy. Provided that the risk of them relapsing to anti-social criminal behavior is so small that the expected benefit is larger than the detriment. The feeling of justice being served and retribution is not very productive. For sure there must be consequences, but the consequences should benefit society and serve to prevent criminal behavior in the first place rather than satisfy the victim's insatiable hunger for revenge.