Day 114: Prison

Dinner Menu:

• Pressé Mozzarella de Buffone, tomates confites, légumes grillés, basilic et gingembre, pico de gallo
• Oeuf poché au saumon fumé (maison) courgettes rôties, piment d'Espelette
• Moshi au thé vert
• Eau pétillante

I usually like to find a reason from my day to justify my thoughts on the state of the world but I can't find anything for today's subject (unless I feel my work is a Prison, probably not a fair comparison considering I am payed a pretty fair salary for my "time").  

Prison is what is now universally used to punish people who have broken the rules deemed important by society.  That covers a wide range of actions depending on the country.   The US that bastion of democracy locks up more people than any other country in the world (over 2 Million).  There are two reasons for using prison

1. To stop them from committing further crimes
2. To punish them for the crimes they have already committed.

While I can see the logic behind the first point at the same time it seems a little arbitrary.  Most people agree that prison is not a great rehabilitation tool so are we not just delaying the problem? Unless we say that all "criminals" should get life sentences which would probably be considered a little harsh (and expensive).

As to the 2nd point can we not think of better punishment than prison which costs the state a lot of money for no discernible benefit to society or to the prisoner.  Here are some possible alternatives:

• Assigned to their residence
• Community service
• Mobile phone ban for 1 year (especially younger criminals)
• Special uniform (for example T-Shirt saying "I stole an apple")
• Diet of vegetable soup
• 5 minute Cold Shower 2x a day
• Forced to watch "Titanic" every day (I can't stand that movie!)

You get the picture.  There must be lots of ways to get a message across to people that their behaviour is not acceptable all of which would be better than Prison.