Nowadays, serious offenders of the law will be sentenced to prison for a long period of time. In my opinion, although longer prison sentences can isolate troublesome individuals from the rest of the society, it is not necessarily the most appropriate approach to the problem, since it causes numerous negative results.
Firstly, prisons are relatively closed environments, many of which lack normal social interactions. Longer sentences may undermine prisoners’ ability to communicate and to collaborate. Consequently, not only prisoners might struggle to reintegrate into the society once their sentence is over, they are also more likely to commit crimes again and to threaten the well-being of the other citizens.
It is well known that the main purpose of prisons is to reeducate the offenders, however, I believe that community services better fulfill this duty in comparison with a longer prison term. Community orders obligate the criminals to volunteer for the benefits of the whole community. By engaging in useful labours, offenders learn that contributing to society can be rewarding. Furthermore, since the dominant causes of juvenile crimes are poverty and a lack of social experience, community services may teach them necessary skills to apply for certain jobs such as computer literacy and culinary techniques, which can help them secure a stable income in the future.
In conclusion, while longer prison sentences indeed secure other citizens’ safety by marginalizing the convicted criminals, it potentially strips offenders’ opportunities to rebuild their lives, to reconnect emotionally, and to enjoy a sense of normalcy.