It's no secret that some form of punishment makes people less likely to commit a crime in the first place, but this ridiculous practice where we take people who did bad things and lock them up under cruel conditions with bad people and then act surprised when they BECOME bad people? It's really gotta stop. Oh, also, get rid of solitary confinement. You can separate them from the general population if you really really need to, but they still need to be interacting with multiple humans, daily, for at least a few hours on end. It really doesn't take much. And yeah, I don't care if they murdered another inmate. We don't get to throw ethics out just because someone's a terrible person. Their nervous system is identical to yours. Their blood, identical to yours. Their suffering, identical to yours. Their tears. These are PEOPLE. And you can NOT totally isolate people for long lengths of time without damaging their minds. Solitary confinement is counterintuitive to rehabilitation.

**TL; DR - The criminal justice system must strike a balance between punishment and rehabilitation.** • This should _not be a question of importance_, but rather a discussion about the kind of society we want to live in. Should we punish criminals and be done with it, or consider and work towards how they will reintegrate into society? • The reason I am mixed as opposed to against this statement, is because I think punishment plays an important role in the structure of the justice system. For example, without punishment, there is no [deterrent](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deterrence), and without a deterrent, people are less likely to be dissuaded from committing crimes. It is for this reason that I really don’t think we can pitch one as more important than the other, because both are necessary. • _Rehabilitation_ is an equally important part of criminal justice because it matters what happens once the punishment has been served. After someone has carried out a prison sentence for example, we must work to help them reintegrate, otherwise what’s the point? • There is an argument to be had, that the balance between punishment and rehabilitation, should be dependent on the situation. For more severe crimes, you could argue [punishment](https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/5144_Banks_II_Proof_Chapter_5.pdf) is more important, as perhaps the point of rehabilitation has passed. Similarly, with smaller crimes and the potential for those committing them to turn into hard criminals, it could be more effective to focus on rehabilitation. • Regardless, I think both punishment and rehabilitation are important - but in different doses depending on the crime committed and the circumstances of the situation.

**From a wholly practical standpoint, rehabilitation is necessary for society to function sustainably.** Punishment cannot be regarded as more important than rehabilitation. Both play critical roles in the enforcement of law and order that necessitate a balanced implementation. - To prioritise punishment over rehabilitation, even without considering the [psychological implications that have resulted from an increased punitive emphasis](https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab) over recent years, has the potential to develop a justice system in which criminals remain criminals. A state's resources are impractically distributed towards maintaining a system that only continues to grow. - While punishment is a necessary deterrent and a cautionary tale for those seeking to break the law, without rehabilitation there is no way to break the cycle that initially propelled the individual to commit a crime. - And while one may question the fairness of allocating taxpayer funds to provide vocational and educational experiences to criminals, it may be worse to demand increasing funds to incarcerate and maintain increasing numbers of individuals. For example, we can look to the United States, where [over 2 million people reside in prisons](https://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab) - equivalent to one in every 142 US residents. This number has grown rapidly since the late 1900s, when the system transitioned out from its implementation of rehabilitation programs to observe punishment as its main focus. Without rehabilitation, there are rampant concerns regarding prisoners' mental health, including those developed as a result of incarceration. The increase in prisoners alone, however, can speak to the effect of an imbalance in punitive measures and rehabilitation programs.