I don’t believe in life imprisonment but for truly exceptional cases. It is needlessly cruel and a huge burden to our system. The prison industrial complex is dystopian.
But what do you mean by “ineffective”? The purpose of prison in the US is twofold: punitive as a deterrent, and to keep criminals away from the rest of society. I have doubts about the effectiveness of the former, but the latter is super effective, we lock up more people than any other first world country! It’s really hard to argue against that from a political standpoint.
But what do you mean by “ineffective”? The purpose of prison in the US is twofold: punitive as a deterrent, and to keep criminals away from the rest of society. I have doubts about the effectiveness of the former, but the latter is super effective, we lock up more people than any other first world country! It’s really hard to argue against that from a political standpoint.