Some people think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others, however, believe there are better alternative ways of reducing crime. Discuss both views and give your opinion

Society is increasingly becoming a difficult place to live due to the high crime rate.

Although

general perception propagates that extending the tenure of punishment will be a wise choice, others choose to differ as they believe that there are many other viable substitutes available.

However

, in my opinion, I vehemently espouse that sentences should be prolonged so that people will hesitate to involve themselves in any activity which is against the community. Undeniably, there are a plethora of ways in which the lawbreakers could be treated for their engagement in inappropriate acts, longer stay inside the cell is not the only possible solution. It is so because making them suffer will only aggravate the mind-set of doing

such

activities and they might end up committing more heinous criminal activities.

Thus

, rather than punishing them by extended duration inside the prison, they should be provided with the way in which they could realize their mistakes.

For instance

, a study conducted by UNESCO in 2016 on 1000 erstwhile prisoners stated that 90% of them left the nature of doing wrongful act after getting proper psychological counselling, which helped them to explore themselves by doing self-introspection.

Hence

, if prisoners are not put in under more hardship and provided an opportunity to sense their faults by themselves,

then

it will pave the way for a better society.

On the contrary

, other commentators and I contemplate that the most preponderant reason for the significant rise in unethical behaviour in society is that the laws are not only lenient but

also

have a shorter duration of imprisonment for many crimes. Because of

this

, people tend to have less fear of the judiciary system and easily engage themselves in misconduct. Thereby, miscreants should spend more time behind the bars so that people will know the severity of the consequences of illegal activities. To illustrate, a survey conducted by United States Census Bureau in 2018 on 500 offenders serving 3 to 9 months in prison revealed that 85% of them involved themselves in undisciplined activities as they were not bothered about the repercussions. It is so as they knew that they would end up spending less time in jail if suppose they get caught. It is,

therefore

, apparent that had it been more strict bylaws,

then

unethical activities would not have had spiked. In essence, while a certain section of society opines that defaulters must be dealt severely by making them spend a colossal amount of time behind bars to minimize the crime, others believe that there are numerous ways in which they could be handled. In my view, I assert that miscreants must go through rigorous imprisonment so that people will refrain from indulging in any malicious activities.