Prison's Don't Work In our society, the dual purpose of imprisonment is punishment and/or rehabilitation. Throughout the states, there is an increased prison population. For example, more than 40 states' prison systems are under court orders to rectify overcrowding. Some prisons have what is called a "zero sum" status. A "zero sum" status basically means if a prison receives a new inmate, it is required to release a current inmate. If prisons are meant to …showed first 75 words of 879 total…

…showed last 75 words of 879 total…prisons, but not a decrease in crime. Prison is a place for punishment as well as rehabilitation, but felons are being re-arrested and sent back to jail. Young criminals are coming out of jail with better criminal skills than when they were first sentenced to prison. Society has done so much to try to decrease crime rates, but do any of us really feel safe? I guess that's just another one of the paradoxal progresses.