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What Is a Crime? Who Is a Criminal?

Do prisons make you feel safe?

What others said

Yes
9%
No
91%
BackShape the Debate

Justice

They may temporarily get dengerous people off the streets, but the terrible prison systems make it so people who go to prison are most likely to re-offend rather than become rehabilitated back into society. Why would I feel safer from a system that exacerbates the problem?

4:16 PM | January 29, 2019

Tracy Zemanek

I do not believe that there is a common concept of REHABILITATION.... That is, rehabilitation is not looked at as a common goal... Inmates do thier time and get released to fend for themselves... With supervision.

2:02 AM | January 27, 2019

Cabin Boy

In the case of locking up violent criminals and fraudulent White Collar criminals, prisons do help to provide a measure of physical and societal safety for the free citizens. In the cases where someone is locked up who simply needs counseling or has broken a law that no one cares about (e.g. Marijuana possession) then safety is not a factor.

12:12 PM | December 18, 2018

Anonymous

Drugs

4:16 PM | December 11, 2018

brianna

There's plenty of people who have evaded justice for violent crimes. Prisoners are mainly nonviolent drug offenders and often fails those who were victims of violent crimes.

10:22 PM | September 30, 2018

Larry

I was mentally and physically abused in New York facilities in 2013 and 2014. I wrote a 30 Page Letter few months back to the governor of the state of New York to see if they could do something and they would not take any further action. I hate the fucking stayed in New York it sucks they let physical mental abuse happen in their prisons and forensic psychiatric facilities and they don't care.

5:05 AM | July 15, 2018

Allie

Because I don't believe that everybody who is a "criminal" is dangerous. On the contrary, the police-states dependence on incarceration as a tool to institute racism and classism makes me feel unsafe.

1:13 PM | June 19, 2018

Shelby

The idea of punitive action being asserted over me for my actions, whether they be seen as "good" or "bad" terrifies me because I am not sure how the entire process works, i am intimidated, and from every academic standpoint I have looked into has shown that nothing about prison seems restorative. I am a human being and I feel like that would be forgotten within this capitalistic institution should I ever become apart of a prison community.

11:11 AM | October 10, 2017

Carolyn Herz

Too many innocent people or people convicted of minor offenses are confined there, while violent criminals often email free.

2:14 PM | May 14, 2017

Micol

Because they tear up the social fabric, make people fear each other, & make everything they're supposed to solve actually worse

3:15 PM | May 7, 2017

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