Would you support or oppose the establishment of a local hub where prison leavers can learn job skills, get support in building a crime-free life and engage in charitable activities?

I mean, I agree with a lot of both arguments in this, honestly. Like, prison is both a system to try and get people to stop committing crimes, but it is *also* a deterrent. Like, for some types of crime, and some criminals, it is a tradeoff between the potential benefits of committing the crime, versus the potential risk and punishment for being caught doing it. I think this is especially relevant to monetary based crimes, like theft or robbery, where the driving force is often either desperation or greed. Like, if you’re stealing from others, and living well from that, that is the potential benefit. Prison is the potential downside. And I think there is a line where prison has to be shit enough to be a significant deterrent to that sort of crime. Otherwise, people can go to prison, spend their time there, and come out feeling ‘well that wasn’t too bad’. And if that’s the impression it leaves, is that going to deter them from reoffending? Especially if the money they had from crime before was of a greater quantity than that they’d be able to make working legitimate jobs. Equally, a lot of crime isn’t like that. A lot of crime is from misguided decisions, stupid mistakes, acts in the moment, and so on. And those sorts of crimes don’t really need a *deterrent* to prevent people from reoffending. What they need is rehabilitation to be able to live as functioning members of society once they are released. But for the first type I mentioned, although rehabilitation will definitely help some, for those who commit those crime wilfully, aware of the risks, and just find that those risks are worth the reward for them, they can and will reoffend until something deters them from doing so. I don’t have the solution, but I do definitely agree that prison should be bad enough that people should come out of it, and feel that it was an absolutely fucking terrible experience they never want to repeat. At least part of it. Because otherwise prison does not function as a deterrent. But I also want people to come out of prison with as many skills as possible, as knowledgeable as possible, and ready to reintegrate with society. So I’ll be honest, I don’t think the other commenter’s suggestion of a phased system, with both punishment and rehabilitation in a sliding scale, is the worst idea. Definitely not the best either - but it’s certainly not one I find inherently wrong. I am curious what others think about my thoughts here, though!