Americans Don't Care About Prison Phone Exploitation, Says FCC Official

Re:Americans Don't Care About Prison Phone Exploitation, Say... by rayiner on Saturday August 06, 2016 @01:39PM (#12238995)

I think prison should be for rehabilitation, but I think it's a bigger departure from how we do things than you appreciate. For example, should a woman who kills her abusive husband be imprisoned? From a purely rehabilitative point of view, the answer is no. There is zero risk of recidivism there. But even most people who think prison should be about rehabilitation probably have trouble with the idea that someone should simply go free under those circumstances. I.e. they believe that prison should be at least a little bit about punishment.

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Re:Americans Don't Care About Prison Phone Exploitation, Say... by int_19h on Saturday August 06, 2016 @06:52PM (#12240249)

It's interesting to put this in historical context.

Until about two centuries ago, it was not all that common to imprison people as a punishment. It was mainly used to confine those awaiting trial, and to induce compliance (contempt of court, debtor prisons etc). Being convicted of an actual crime generally warranted some form or combination of fines, public shaming, corporal punishment, banishment, or execution.

Then, during the 17th century, the society had started to increasingly reject torture in general, and death penalty for relatively minor crimes (theft etc). Conveniently, that's also when European countries acquired sparsely populated lands that they wanted to settle ASAP, and so penal colonies were born, and replaced a significant chunk of previous death penalty convictions. That system eventually inspired the creation of proper prisons as we know them today.

Ironically, if you read about the prominent people behind the movement that made it happen, most of them subscribed to "prison as repentance" theory, rather than punishment. It's why it was seen as so progressive and radical for its day.

We all know how well that worked out.

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Re:Americans Don't Care About Prison Phone Exploitation, Say... by jacquesm on Saturday August 06, 2016 @03:36PM (#12239543)

> But even most people who think prison should be about rehabilitation probably have trouble with the idea that someone should simply go free under those circumstances.

Not in my experience. But that's just an anecdote and no doubt there is a lot of data backing your assertion. I also suspect that this is different for different countries.

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