A
paraphrase of what
Shanoyu said over on "
Thoughts on Hate Crimes".
And it's very evident this is that attitude of the Justice System, even if they do call them "correctional facilities", though I don't think they're trying to correct anything anymore. And most likely, this is one of the reasons why such a high percentage of people are in the system.
No effort is really made anymore to help those people who commit a crime, they're just tossed in to spend some time living in a cell, meeting other criminals, learning new skills that are applicable for crime, and being treated like dirt. Maybe if we decided that the high percentage of people who commit multiple crimes was a sign of failure of the correctional system and that something could be done about it, fewer people might commit a crime, and people could put their time in prison to good use instead of time to just make connections for the future.
It's like saying "It is not the job of the government to run the country" - umm, isn't that exactly what it was intended for in the first place? The next thing we'll hear "it is not the job of the internet to communicate"...