In majority of the countries, there is a dispute on the impact of extended prison sentences to fight crime. There are both pros and cons of this initiative. The benefits of the longer prison sentences are, peace in the city, as most of them would be in prison. Additionally, due to suuch long sentences people would fear a lot of individuals from committing crime, as the crime rate would decline, eventually. however, the drawbacks are, criminals worthy of amendments will not get a chance due to the law, also practically, majority of the funds would be invested on the prisoners, as over time, more people would be in jail due to the extended punishment.
As there is increase in crime rate each day, extending sentences, is one of the solutions. If majority of the criminals would be in prison, then there is little to no crime happening outside. So citizens could safely lead their life without worrying about such criminal activities. Also, Citizens would think twice, before committing a crime, as the punishment is extended. So, the overall crime rate would decline. For instance, consider a country, where, for committing a specific crime the prison period was 1 year and if this was incremented to 7 years, then citizens would consdier, before performing any illegal activity.
In constrast, this negatively affects the soceity as well. Individuals do exist who did some illegal activity, unknowingly, they deserve a second chance in life. If this extension of sentence was implemented then, this would affect their entire life, as they would spend most of their time in prison. This could negatively impact a person’s moral, and out of which he may commit more crime. Additionally, this could impact the economy of the country. With increase in the sentence period, the population inside the prison would increase over time and the most funds would be spent for prisoners, ideally a bad idea. For example, most of the prison’s maintainance is taken care by the governmnet, and if more people present, the more money is needed to look after the prisoners, no funds would remain for investment in other things.
In conclusion, priosn sentences must be extended only for specific sensitive crimes whereas to reduce other crimes, initiatives must be taken by the goovernment and also by the people in other ways rather than blindly increasing the prison sentences.