Crime

Is the purpose of the criminal justice system to rehabilitate or to punish?

Criminals are criminals.   They are in jail for a reason.   They screwed up and they can blame themselves for it and only themselves.   The purpose of going to jail should be to punish criminals for their wrong doings.   To rehabilitate them would not be more effective because there is over a fifty percent chance that if you have gone to jail before, you will be back.   For a criminal that goes through rehabilitation and returns to jail, just like statistics say he or she will, then not only has that criminal wasted his life but the government's time and money as well.   The US government is already in enough debt, over thirteen trillion to be exact.   To waste more money then they already have on criminals to give them a second chance is ridiculous.   Jails are becoming too soft on their inmates.   Now they are getting their criminals pool and ping pong tables and other fun activities to do in jail.   They should not be rewarded for doing wrong to society. Its jail, its not supposed to be fun.   Jails should allow inmates an hour of free time a day and the rest of the time they should rot in their cell, with the exception of being excused for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bathing.   There is no evidence that proves rehabilitation is making criminals better people.   Our murder and crime rates are still as high as ever and are not moving back down.   In the movie Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore clearly emphasizes the United States' crime rates and murder rates are dramatically higher than any other country.   This is because America is so violent.   No one knows why Americans are so violent for sure but getting to the bottom of that question would be a much better way to stop crime than to rehabilitate our criminals.   The whole point of rehabilitation is to fix people after they have made their mistakes in life.   If we can stop people from making these mistakes then that would be easier and less...