A natural experiment study of the effects of imprisonment on violence

My theory is that prison is only effective on people that are already fairly morally grounded and with pretty healthy social and mental dynamics. So those folks can and do bounce back.<p>But prison does nothing to help with mental illness or help give folks a sense of community once they&#x27;re out.

&gt;Being sentenced to prison had no significant effects on arrests or convictions for violent crimes after release from prison, but imprisonment modestly reduced the probability of violence if comparisons included the effects of incapacitation during imprisonment.<p>So in the final accounting, probation increases the probability of violence while imprisonment reduces it. Imprisonment reduces violence while the offender is in prison, and it doesn&#x27;t seem like it increases arrests or convictions afterward.

What if we had prison cities where prisoners can live &quot;freely&quot; and have their own economies and stuff? Let&#x27;s see how they like trying to live normal lives with other people who have no qualms about stealing and killing to get what they want, just like they may have done themselves to innocent people before they were imprisoned. Will the criminals learn to get along or will they end up killing each other? I wouldn&#x27;t care because they&#x27;re in the prison city and not anywhere near me and other normal people, which is what prison is for right? Maybe we can even free those who prove themselves to be outstanding citizens in those prison cities.<p>Just a thought.

Prison is cheap torture. That&#x27;s the long and short of it.<p>Torture is traumatic. Traumatized people are violent.<p>Simple.