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I think that prison needs to be both about punishment and rehabilitation. If it's only about rehabilitation, there's a lurking slippery slope -- we lock them up until they're 'better', and who decides what constitutes 'better'? But punishment is one-sided as well. More practically? I don't know enough about the system to know what would help improve it. Concerns about overcrowding aside, I'm not sure the current system is all that bad.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."
"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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