Criminal Punishment

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My opinion is that the society should get rid of the current prison/jail system. To lock people up against there will is a very serious thing.

Today in the USA and EU people can be subjected to being locked up for NHV crimes (Non-human-suffering).
Im talking about property crime. People should never be locked up for propery crime.

Prison/Jail should only be used in cases of extremly violent criminals, that does not show any ambition to stop with their criminal behavior.

And even in this cases, the locked up client should be treated much better compared to the system being used today.

Today, in america and the EU, a young person can commit a non-violent burglary(BandE) in an empty house, if arrested he can be placed in an isolation cell for a long time awaiting trial. He will be forced to spend about 23 hours a day in the cell.

That is wrong. Such a legal system have no place in a modern society. That is torture.


(all criminals should always be responsible for paying the damages of their crimes, thats my opinion)

all punishment is torture to some extent....punishment is not meant to be pleasant.


my question to you is this: what's a better method?


i'm not defending the current system because i know more than enough flaws as it is but i've never dedicated the time to thinking about repairing it......how should it be done if the current way is wrong? and is there any proof to back it up?

Well, like I said, prison/jail should only be used in the most extreme cases.

A person found guilty of a crime could be ordered by a court to sign a contract that says that this person will not commit any more crimes during her lifetime.

The society should also do everything in their power to prevent people from doing crimes. Lets keep in mind that many people will commit a crime 1 time, and 1 time only.

A criminal judge could also give out multiple warnings and really try to "talk some sense" into certain criminals.

I think you get my point, the society should do everything to avoid putting people in prison/jail.

Aside from the fact that some people do very well by crime and it is a way of life that permits them to be more financially successful than legal means, many communities have as their main source of income the employment of guards and other prison employees and if a successful way were devised to convert criminals to a more accepted way of life many communities would be put out of business. Just as wars are wonderfully profitable to many large businesses, so crime is a great way to keep law enforcers employment. The USA has one of the largest, perhaps the largest, number of prisoners in the world so it has become a way of life. Also, once a person has served time, in many states he or she is no longer eligible to vote so many poor people are legally kept from elections and this is of great benefit for political parties that would prefer the less wealthy groups from expressing their opinions politically.
In general a great proportion of people convicted of a crime have unsurmountable difficulty in gaining adequate employment once they have been released so they are automatically forced back into illegal activity to maintain themselves and thereby soon return to prison. The cut down of prison educational funds to provide prisoners with skills that they could use for subsequent employment once released more or less insures the merry-go-round which keeps the profitable prison system going.
Beyond that, many politicians get into office by promising the public that they will increase the punishments of convicted prisoners and prison becomes an education in criminal skills so the system maintains itself by its social structure.
It must be said that a good many people get a good deal of pleasure from the idea that people convicted as criminals are punished since it gives them a sense of superiority over what they consider their superior behavior. Of course, each person convicted is an individual case and individual circumstances have put them where they are. Some are merely nasty people, some have had bad luck, and some are mentally deficient or insane. Ideally a good judge and ideal prison system would treat each individual in such a way as to return the prisoner to society to the benefit of both the prisoner and society. Evidently this doesn't happen as frequently as it should.