Has anyone watched Time with Sean Bean? I watched it all on iPlayer. It's one of.the best things I've ever watched, totally compelling and brilliantly acted, especially by Sean Bean. I'm going to watch it again!
I'm very interested in psychology and sociology, and already knew that most of the inmates are people from very troubled backgrounds, and most have quite severe/severe psychological problems (hate the term mental illness!) I read a few articles about prison after watching it, and they confirmed my thoughts that prison very rarely works as a deterrent, just exacerbates the problems of those incarcerated, and doesn't benefit society. Obviously I'm not saying that murderers, paedophiles and rapists etc shouldn't be locked up, but for many, many criminals it's a revolving door.
It costs approx 30k a year to keep someone inside. 🙄 That money would be much better spent helping prevent crime, such as by preventing the poverty and disadvantage that leads many criminals to take drugs which they turn to crime to fund, though it's obviously much more complex than that. About 8/10 men in prison didn't have a father at home, or good male role model in their lives. I find that a shocking, telling statistic. Overall it really brings it home to you that the inequalities in society need to be urgently tackled. People from "good" backgrounds very rarely turn to crime.