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griffin tucker

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jails should be more widely known as schools

some correctional facilities are becoming a business or already are a business, the future of these businesses depends on more people to commit crimes.

the idea here is to give incentives for correctional facility businesses to fully rehabilitate people into society by means of ensuring they don't re-offend.

one incentive in western society is money.

while giving money to one of these businesses from the tax-payer for each individual that doesn't re-offend may seem like a good idea, there are many problems with this idea. one of the problems with giving individualised incentives is that the future of the business would still depend on repeat or new offenders.

however, if the tax-payer were to give incentives to a correctional facility business based on how successful it was based on statistics, eventually the rehabilitation facility would effectively be a school.

this idea was inspired by a conversation i had with Colleen Steen.


EDIT: the main premise of the thread was intended to be an effective realistic way to utilise the commercialisation of prisons, and in the process improve society, but perhaps i didn't word the topic's title very well.

instead, i have changed the topic title to better suit the conversation, just as Salim Solaiman suggested.

Topics: courts and cases crime cultural evolution law law evolution moral psychology sociology
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    Estrella Reyes

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    Oct 13 2011: Think about it in a different way.. in school, people socialize, get to know each other. there are rules, but overall people make friends. now lets put criminals in that atmosphere. They would be in a place where there are more criminals just like them. putting two and two together, you're helping them find friends/accomplices who share similar backgrounds and are not afraid to do break the law, and at the same time raising their intelligence level.. it doesnt sound like it would have a good outcome for me.. however, i also understand that there coudl be positive outcomes from such an arrangement.
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      Colleen Steen 500+

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      Oct 13 2011: Estrella,
      Do you think offenders are not making friends and connections while in jail now?

    • Sunil Verma

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      Oct 13 2011: If a person is hell bent not to change nothing can be done. But if teachings can bring about changes to some jail birds it might have impact on others too. Question is, what will be taught in such schools?
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        Colleen Steen 500+

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        Oct 13 2011: I agree Sunil,
        People will not change unless s/he wants to change. I believe they need to learn skills they can use to be productive members of society when released from jail. Some offenders have some skills, and many do not. We could set up programs to teach and learn some skills from each other?

        Estrella mentions the possibility of connecting with each other, sharing similar backgrounds, and probably sharing information regarding how to be successful in crime. Offenders are doing that all the time now. We somehow need to redirect them to a more productive learning experience.

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