Studies show that many criminals have a low level of education. For this reason, people believe that the best way to reduce crime is to educate people in prison so they can get a job when they leave prison. Do you agree or disagree?
Unemployment and poverty are indisputably the major reasons of crime. Providing vocational Unemployment and poverty are indisputably the major reasons of crime. Providing vocational education to prisoners inside penitentiaries would definitely reduce joblessness and destitution. However, I disagree with the given statement that providing education to inmates is the best way to reduce crime. It is a good method, but there are other better methods to curb crime.
To begin with, the main purpose of prisons is not just to punish criminals, but also to rehabilitate them. If this rehabilitation part is not looked into, then majority of criminals would re-offend after coming out of prison. This is because, such criminals are not accepted by the general public, and nobody likes to give them jobs. Therefore just educating them is not enough to reduce crime. The government must ensure that they are given jobs to fend for their basic needs.
Another important fact, which has to be considered, is that these penitentiaries are very costly to maintain. When these inmates are taught vocational skills such as carpentry, a lot of infrastructure is required. While all this expenditure may help a few prisoners, it may be futile in case of those hard-core criminals who are not in there because of illiteracy or unemployment. They just have a criminal bent of mind. They would never become useful members of society even after such education. Rigorous imprisonment would be better to deter potential criminals.
The best way to reduce crime would be to never let it happen in the first place. Laws should be enforced so strictly that people should think a hundred times before resorting to crime. Compulsory primary education should be given to all children. Youth unemployment should be dealt with by creating job openings or by encouraging entrepreneurship.
To conclude, it can be reiterated that while educating the prisoners and trying to make them self-sufficient would be good to reduce crime, the better methods would be to stop crime from happening in the first place.
