Some people think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others, however, believe there are better alternative ways of reducing crime.
The question of how long a convicted criminal should serve a prison sentence is constantly being reviewed. Today’s prisons are overcrowded and lengthening sentences puts a large financial burden on taxpayers. Often prisoners are released after serving only half their sentence only to commit further crimes. I think prison sentences should be under careful review as criminals are human beings and cannot be generalised.
In an ideal world, victims of crime and the general public would feel justice has been carried out if the punishment fit the crime. For example murderers would be sentenced to death and minor crimes would carry short sentences. However, there is a risk of miscarriage of justice when the wrong person has been convicted of a crime they did not commit. In most developed countries the death penalty has been abolished but this does put a strain on prison services.
There is also a risk that spending years in prison is an education in crime for petty criminals and first time offenders and the less time they spend in the prison environment the greater the chance of them reforming and not committing further crimes once they are released. Unfortunately, criminals are also good at hiding their intentions as was demonstrated recently by a convicted terrorist who attended a rehabilitation program but attacked and killed the very people who were delivering the program.
In conclusion, I think there needs to be a careful review of prison sentences based on assessments of individual prisoners. The more widespread use of electronic tags and curfews keeping criminals off the streets at night helps to protect the public but modern society has not yet come up with the perfect answer to combat crime. (283 words)
Introduction
The question of how long a convicted criminal should serve a prison sentence is constantly being reviewed. Today’s prisons are overcrowded and lengthening sentences puts a large financial burden on taxpayers. Often prisoners are released after serving only half their sentence only to commit further crimes. I think prison sentences should be under careful review as criminals are human beings and cannot be generalised. (64 words)
Body Paragraph 1
In an ideal world, victims of crime and the general public would feel justice has been carried out if the punishment fit the crime. For example murderers would be sentenced to death and minor crimes would carry short sentences. However, there is a risk of miscarriage of justice when the wrong person has been convicted of a crime they did not commit. In most developed countries the death penalty has been abolished but this does put a strain on prison services. (81 words)
Body Paragraph 2
There is also a risk that spending years in prison is an education in crime for petty criminals and first time offenders and the less time they spend in the prison environment the greater the chance of them reforming and not committing further crimes once they are released. Unfortunately, criminals are also good at hiding their intentions as was demonstrated recently by a convicted terrorist who attended a rehabilitation program but attacked and killed the very people who were delivering the program. (82 words)
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think there needs to be a careful review of prison sentences based on assessments of individual prisoners. The more widespread use of electronic tags and curfews keeping criminals off the streets at night helps to protect the public but modern society has not yet come up with the perfect answer to combat crime. (56 words)