You still seem to believe that incarceration REDUCES crime. If anything, prison makes criminals. One does not have to be a genius to see this. One could merely volunteer to spend a few hours in a prison and soon one would learn. Money is better spent building community centres, funding rehab centres, and paying social workers than building prisons. Money is better spent combatting the SOURCES of crime than locking up the "failures". (Gosh, that sounds cold-hearted, appealing to the economic reasons but if I appealed to the compassion in you, you would not go for it. What the heck: Are you imaginitive enough to envision yourself being driven to commit crimes? Are you strong enough to admit you could possibly have a weakness? Could you ever steal? Could you ever lie? Could you (GASP!) ever kill someone?
I am not afraid to admit that I can imagine being driven to any of these eventualities, if the circumstances were dire enough. I don't PLAN to break any major laws any time soon, and I HOPE nothing that drastic ever happens, but I can imagine (vaguely, thanks to my sheltered existence) being driven to steal because of lack of food or rent money. I can imagine being an adict. Heck, it runs in the family, and I have at times struggled with it. Thankfully, I had support when I needed it. Many others are not so fortunate. Many others do lots of things society considers "wrong" and they may not be proud of it. Then again, they may be driven to do it often enough, that they start to need to justify it, so they do. That is how people become what society terms "evil". They did not get the help the needed, and they find themselves on the "wrong side of the law."
Now, you speak of children of criminals, and how the parents must be punished. Well, imagine your mom or dad going to the slammer. Imagine that support network (however flawd before) collapsing. Then what? What does that do to you? 3 guesses and the first two don't count. Chances are, you end up on the street, or in the care of someone "as bad" or "worse" than your folks. THEN you keep on down that terrible path, and lo and behold! you end up in the slammer like dear ol' ma 'n pa.
Seems to me, the solution is to say: "Hmm, she tried to steal money. Why? Oh, I suppose she was trying to feed her kid or her drug habit. Well, we COULD support her through the rough times, for her kid's sake of course. And maybe it might even do her some good." Prison won't help. Ask a psychologist.
None.
