All the same, the number of prisoners in the US just keeps rising. All you can really conclude is that Americans love to meet out punishment, even although behavioural and criminological research shows that punishment is a strategy that is less likely to cause behavioural change than other strategies. The question then is what the motive for punishment really is - does it, perhaps, seek to prevent real behavioural changes actually occurring ?
Leaving aside speculations about American's simple mindedness and thirst for revenge, I'd just like to note that correctional jobs remain some of the best paid unskilled work in the U.S. In fact, a lot of the folks who lost their manufacturing jobs wound up being prison guards. The job is relatively secure, well paid, and will not be outsourced. It creates jobs, doncha know....the ultimate "ethical" argument, since as we all know, we live to work and arbeit macht frei.
Joanna
