caramelmacaron
Member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2012
- Messages
- 64
- Gender
- Female
- HSC
- 2012
Firstly, consider the punishment of incapacitation, or imprisonment. What are the positives? What are the negatives? To give you a few ideas, there were some incredible statistics that I found that showed over 50% of people who enter the prison system in Australia reoffend. Also, it's very cost-ineffective, leading to questions of resource efficiency. Imprisonment is over 15 times the cost per day of community service. Both of these things are definitely a negative for society.
However, there are programs in prison, like drug rehabilitation, education and sex offender programs, that can be beneficial in reforming offenders and reducing the risk of reoffending, which assists with the protection of society. Also, the alternative, which is more commnunity based programs, or less harsh sentences, may put society at greater risk, and may put victims in danger. Thus, you should try to balance both sides of the argument in terms of incapacitation. The documentary Road To Return (ABC Four Corners) is excellent, so if you have some time, check it out, but if not, a transcript or summary would be a great source.
Then, I would go on to look at alternative methods of achieving justice for victims and society. In the Sentencing and Punishment topic, you should have studied a range of remedies that focus more on things like rehabilitation (e.g. circle sentencing, the MERIT scheme), which have less of an emphasis on rehabilitation and more on reintegration into society. Doing some research on the positives and negatives of this would be helpful, but remember, the questions is 'To what extent...' so you are expected to make a judgement of some kind.
Anyway, I hope this helps you get started, and if you have any other questions, let me know. Good luck!
However, there are programs in prison, like drug rehabilitation, education and sex offender programs, that can be beneficial in reforming offenders and reducing the risk of reoffending, which assists with the protection of society. Also, the alternative, which is more commnunity based programs, or less harsh sentences, may put society at greater risk, and may put victims in danger. Thus, you should try to balance both sides of the argument in terms of incapacitation. The documentary Road To Return (ABC Four Corners) is excellent, so if you have some time, check it out, but if not, a transcript or summary would be a great source.
Then, I would go on to look at alternative methods of achieving justice for victims and society. In the Sentencing and Punishment topic, you should have studied a range of remedies that focus more on things like rehabilitation (e.g. circle sentencing, the MERIT scheme), which have less of an emphasis on rehabilitation and more on reintegration into society. Doing some research on the positives and negatives of this would be helpful, but remember, the questions is 'To what extent...' so you are expected to make a judgement of some kind.
Anyway, I hope this helps you get started, and if you have any other questions, let me know. Good luck!