Discussion

Introduction

Part three of the exam assignment for English B HF on December 4th 2018 requires you to discuss the purposes of imprisoning criminals, taking your starting point in one of the two texts. You are also asked to use phrases like: though, whether, on the contrary, then, however, primarily, nonetheless, finally.

In what follows, we will look at how each text can be used to discuss the purposes of imprisoning criminals.

Note that both texts are in favour of rehabilitation over punishment, so if you wish to argue that the main purpose of imprisoning criminals is punishment, you may need to work a bit more on coming up with the arguments you need yourself. A possible strategy might be to consider the idea of justice, and argue that it is possible for someone to deserve punishment if their actions are bad enough. 

Do We Want Prisons To Punish, Or To Rehabilitate?

Matt Terzi’s article “Do We Want Prisons To Punish, Or To Rehabilitate?” debates two purposes of imprisoning criminals – punishment or rehabilitation.

Punishment

The article argues that in the US imprisonment is primarily a form of punishment: “Currently, prisons seem to be designed to punish criminals, rather than rehabilitate them” (l. 10). The author explores how the punishment system works: “They’re locked away in tiny cells, in a building where the vast majority of their social interactions will be with other prisoners” (ll. 10-11). Prisoners in jail are deprived of real social interactions with people. This is why “…prisons are better at punishing criminals than they are at rehabilitating them.” (l. 14)

However, the article tells us that “77% of inmates released in 2005 returned to prison within five years, while 68% return to prison within three years” (ll. 15-16). This shows that punishing criminals does not make society safer or reduce crime rate. Focusing only on punishment leads to former convicts further committing crimes after they are released.

American society seems to agree that putting crimin...