Response
The concept of punishment is based on the idea of retributive justice and deterrence theory. A person’s crimes do not just result in harm to the specify victim, but are affronts to society at large. The goal of any civilized society is to minimize crime. Crime causes physical and social harm. The means to this end, preventing crime, is inflicting pain and punishment on the criminal. Pain and punishment come in the form of incarceration. In prison, a prisoner is treated like a prisoner and forfeits many of the benefits, privileges, liberties, and luxuries of being an ordinary member of society.
Retribution and deterrence go hand-in-hand. The purpose of retribution is to punish the criminal for committing the crime. It is society’s way of responding to criminal acts. Collectively, society is sending a message that the criminal’s conduct will not be condoned and will punished accordingly. In a similar vein, deterrence seeks to deter other persons from committing future crimes. There are two types of deterrence; general and specific. General deterrence is broader in nature and simply seeks to deter others from committing crime. Specific deterrence seeks to deter the particular individual from further committing crimes.
The idea of punishment as a form of pain and social exclusion lends way to utilitarian schools of thought and rational choice theory. The basic idea behind rational choice theory is minimizing pain while maximizing pleasure. From an economic standpoint, the actor would seek to minimize costs and maximize possible benefits. Applying these principles to crime and punishment, a punishment seeks to make the costs of crime outweigh the potential benefits. Most criminals do not want to get caught. The criminals that do get caught end up in prison. Thus, criminals take a calculated risk when committing certain rimes because there is always a chance they will be detected and arrested. Punishment, therefore, seeks to implant in the criminal’s mind the extreme costs that the crime will have. While some criminals will ultimately decide that committing the crime is worth the attendant risks and costs, others will necessarily be persuaded to refrain from committing the crime because the risks are simply too great.
Human suffering is a collectively shared experience. Work then, is a collective human effort that reflects life itself. The ability to work and earn a living gives most persons self-satisfaction and fulfillment. The person feels that he or she is making a valuable contribution to society through their work. In prison, however, part of the punishment is to take away the inmate’s ability to work and earn a livelihood for him or herself. A person is stripped of his or her own self worth and identity inside the prison walls. They are no longer a unique individual, but merely an inmate. Because human suffering is a shared experience, many prisoners bond over their shared pain and experience. The adage “misery loves company” is highly applicable to the prison setting because all prisons are suffering in some sort, and these prisoners band together to get through difficult times.
