Well, Tangledwood, I think that if prison conditions are inhumane or demeaning, all a prison does is create more dedicated criminals. If a person is treated fairly and humanely in prison, there might be a chance of reform. Also, prisoners are a lot easier to control if they're treated fairly and given some sort of mental stimulation.

I realize that the Conventional Wisdom demands increasingly harsh punishment for crime, but I've seen no evidence that harsher punishment does anything other than increase the cost of incarceration.



-Joe-