Prison Time

Prison Time

In the essay "The Prisoner's Dilemma", Stephen Chapman writes that the Muslim punishment system and the United States system are both barbaric in some way. The prison system in the United States only makes a criminal do prison time whereas the Muslim system dismembers a criminal's body. The author states that the Muslim system teaches a criminal a lesson quicker than doing time behind bars in the United States system. Disagreeing with the author's thesis, the Muslim system is more barbaric than the United States system.

As the author states, "Imprisonment is now the universal method of punishing criminals in the United States." United States imprisonment is supposed to perform five functions which were labeled by criminalist. These five functions are retribution, specific deterrence, general deterrence, prevention, and rehabilitation. Muslim countries don't need any of these five functions. They would only need two out of the five functions which will be retribution and general deterrence.

My cousin served time in the United States prison for almost 15 years. He was convicted of armed robbery with a weapon by a jury and a judge. His freedom was taken from him in 1991 and was given back to him in 2007. He was asked his opinion on which system is more barbaric and which system he would prefer. He responded, "I would do the time because I did the crime. It's not worth losing a limb over a crime because you can always get your freedom back."

The Muslim system is very harsh to the human body when a criminal has committed a crime. If he committed his crime in a Muslim country, he would have probably lost two limbs. One limb for the theft/ robbery and one limb for the weapon that he was carrying. Walking around with no limbs is more obvious to the public eye than doing time behind bars. It is more painful and it takes time to heal. A person could never be physiologically right after this cruelty has been performed in front of millions of people.

Even though their freedom is taken away in the United States system, prisoners have time behind bars to think about what they've done and if they're going to commit the same crime again. While my grandfather was in prison he passed his jail time by preaching on Sunday at church services and teaching GED classes to other prisoners. He was in and out of his jail cell most of the day doing his job as a teacher which a prisoner only can get if they have no offenses on their rap sheet while in prison.

While doing his jobs in prison, he found that the United States prison system teaches prisoners a lesson. The decision from a lesson learned has to be self taught and they have to make a decision within themselves. Criminals have time to think about what they have done and the impact they have on others. Being in a 4X4 cell can change a person's life and