Quote Originally Posted by upthemaggies View Post
The public need protecting from certain individuals but I've never understood the idea that it should be a punishment and then you release people who are going to be even more screwed up back into the outside world. If you need prisons to act as a deterrent then what does that say about us as a society? It's basically an admission that the system will inevitably ruin a lot of people and the only way to deal with them is to ruin them some more.
Blame "the system" if you like but we're all exposed to the system and "society" and we don't all fail, so haven't these people ruined themselves or at least contributed to their situation? No, of course not, it's the fault of innocents in society who follow the system and want a quiet life, they deserve all they get.