In South Africa, the government has been called to double the incarceration rates. This initially sounds like a good idea, if the prisoners are legitimate. A pregnant teenager behind bars doesn’t seem to qualify as a cold hard criminal. Parliament has full faith in sentencing. So far, it has already given courts other than high courts the ability to lock people up for life and throw away the key. Despite Parliament’s beliefs, some studies have shown that incarceration rates and crime rates are not directly correlated. At the same time, these studies are more of comparisons to South Africa. This means that even though there seems to be no direct correlation, does not mean that the two are completely independent of each other. Another flaw in the reported crimes is the opinion of whether the crime is serious or not. All in all, it does not make sense to double the incarceration rates. Doubling would not necessarily cut the crime rate in half. In addition to this, it is extremely costly to house criminals, even more so with double that exist now. The costs of doubling the incarceration rates outweigh the hypothetical benefits. If people are torn away from their homes and support systems collapse people are more likely to fall into a life of crime. No matter what the circumstances, it seems to be a vicious cycle.
At first glance, doubling the incarceration rates sounds reasonable. However, when you think about it, it just seems ridiculous. If someone makes a goal to double the number of people currently in prison, they are going to do whatever they can to get to that goal. It doesn’t really matter if some of the crimes aren’t extremely serious. What needs to be recognized is that this method isn’t exactly serving as a deterrent. Parliament needs to reevaluate their method of eliminating criminal activity.
Mindy Collins
http://allafrica.com/stories/200711080337.html
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