you are here: > Arabian Union Prison Code > Article 14
 
3. Imprisonment and social objectives
 
  Article 14-The objectives of imprisonment  
14.1 The objectives of imprisonment  
  Society demands certain penalties are enforced when anti-social and dangerous behaviour is enacted by one or more individuals. One of these penalties is to be removed from normal society for a period of time and placed in a period of compulsory detention (prison).
  
  Prisons have existed since the first civilizations and have ranged from minimum security “farming” communities to concentration camps designed for misery and murder.
  
  However, one predominant and universal model of imprisonment (until now) has been used by most societies, being the cell and cell-block model of prisons whereby prisoners are incarcerated in small, stark lockable rooms which in turn are tightly grouped into wings/cell blocks, which in turn form part of a larger correctional facility.  
  Such traditional models of imprisonment, evoke images of a living hell, a primal community where death is a risk at any moment.  
  To those in society who wish to consider all forms of criminals as exiles, such a model is considered just. However, to the many who understand the cost to society of such models, these prisons created from a "Middle Ages" view of imprisonment only serve to weaken society, not strengthen it.  
14.2 The danger of considering merely the penalty of incarceration  
  Human nature being what it is, means that most individuals will physically and mentally seek to adapt to even the most extreme of conditions.
 
  What this means is that as hard as a prison life may be designed, most inmates will find ways to adapt and cope with such extreme conditions. In the process, they will consciously or unconsciously discover a great many things about themselves.
  
  For overcrowded, extremely dangerous, gang controlled prisons such as many “super” prisons such prisons are the perfect university of crime for young offenders to sharpen their minds, their instincts and criminal crafts of concealment to become even more dangerous and deadly criminals on their return to society.
  
  In many cases, society would be better off in never imprisoning these individuals and giving them such a dangerous education. Being members of gangs, means that these people usually have someone “on the inside”, who can look out for them and connect them.
  
14.3 Genuine reform and lowering of repeat offence  
  Instead of training a new breed of people capable of surviving on the streets of urban cities and tought enough to withstand most things, the objective of imprisonment must forstly and foremostly be to reduce the risk of repeat offence.  
     
     
 
 

Copyright © 1999-2008 Arabian-Union.Org. All rights reserved.