Prisons and Reinforcement.

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

I would like to ask a question about what you think when it comes to possible prison systems.

I am not intimately familiar with the prison system, so if anyone is, I would appreciate some input. However, is it the case that the prison system relies fairly heavily on antecedent stimuli to punish, thus decreasing behaviour?

If so, would it be possible to design some type of panopticon or justice system based not on punishment, but negative and positive reinforcement techniques? I always wondered, because according to the literature on operant conditioning, punishment is extremely ineffectual compared to reinforcement.

With the money we pump into the punishment system (if that is indeed what it is largely), could there be a reinforcement scheme used to increase desirable behaviour of criminals? When dealing with children, those with disabilities, and really--anyone learning--we are heavily discouraged from applying punishments; they say they just don't work often. I never recall any major experiments in penitentiary's that worked off of the reinforcement over punishment. I have heard of reform and rehab programmes, but I am not familiar with them or if they are largely punishment and "educational-training" or reinforcement based.

I am still looking though.



Edit: I guess I mean would it be profitable to society to reform criminals, not necessarily by punishing them, but by training them as well as using something they want, desire to get them to behave. Use a an antecedent stimulus to get good behaviour. It might be something like Premak's Principle in practice.

I got thinking on this because I don't really know how effective the criminal system is. I would appreciate any sources if anyone knows where I can find out how effective at deterrance the system really is.

[PainRack]

Depending on the country, a prison system is not neccesary based on punishment alone.

Rather, its insitutionalisation. There's some elements of punishment involved, but whether any training intended to reform and etc depends on the system.

[Chiaroscuro]

In America, the prison system is based almost entirely on punishment: you've done something bad, now you have to suffer for X amount of time because of that. It's fairly ineffective (as far as repeat offending goes), but that could just be because our prisons are highly overfilled. Some statistics can be found at:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm
I personally think taking away freedom is bad enough, and that our prison system is currently vengeful and harmful both to the prisoners and to society (since the prisoners who are then let out into society are usually not remediated). But people, particularly people like our president, want to believe that criminals are "evil" by choice and that they have to be punished physically and mentally before they can be allowed out here with normal people. Not to say that murderers and rapists should be allowed to wander free, but I think a greater emphasis on psychological treatment in high-security prisons is sorely needed if we're hoping to help change the actions/lifestyles of any of the prisoners.