People think that the best way to reduce crime is to give longer prison sentences. Others believe that there are other alternative solutions for reducing crime. Discuss both views and give your opinion on this topic.

The question of whether criminals should spend longer prison

sentences

or having alternative punishments has been always controversial, there are people in favour of both views. I strongly believe that longer terms are not effective and

this

has been proven in systems

such

as the American. In the following essay, both perspectives will be analysed and discussed. On the one hand, some people argue that longer times in jail help to reduce

crime

indexes,

however

, it might not be the case. As an example, the United States penitentiary system is the largest in the world despite having the longest

sentences

, they even have executions as punishment,

nevertheless

, they have one of the biggest rates of

crime

repetition in the world.

This

means that severe punishments do not guarantee higher levels of safety. But, in spite of the fact mentioned above, longer

sentences

could help to decrease

crime

if that time in prison was used wisely, and criminals were educated to be reinserted in society.

On the other hand

, alternative punishments could be more useful to lower

crime

levels. To point that, some nordic countries like Norway, have more relaxed systems in which criminals spend shorter

sentences

but they are both used as workers and re-educated,

besides

, they have psychological assistance during their time behind the bars.

Furthermore

, depending on the

crime

, some inmates could serve social service

instead

of being useless in jail, there is plenty of work that can be done to repair the damage they did in the past. Having said that, those alternatives could be better for society and even cheaper for governments. In conclusion, even though there are some arguments to support longer terms to reduce violence, in my opinion, the best is to try different solutions in which inmates are educated and serve the community that they affected in the

first

place.