"If prisons aren't fit for purpose, then prisoners should be set free."

This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.

If prisons aren’t fit for purpose then should prisoners be set free?

I will be sharing my standpoint on prisons.This is an important topic because on the 7th of January 2024, Jose Aldolfo Macias Vilamar( or better known as Fito) escaped from his maximum security cell in Ecuador.He had electrics, which were illegal in the prison, and his cell was comfortable. This man has escaped from prison before. After his escape, prisons in Ecuador were taken hostage and guards were taken control . This brings me to my question, if prisoners aren’t fit for purpose then should prisoners be set free?

Yes, the prisoner should be set free.

Some may argue that they should be set free because if the prisons

aren’t reformative then why don't they just let them learn it for themselves. In addition, if prisons aren’t secure then the prisoners would keep on escaping. When a prison is comfortable,you know in an instant that it isn’t a good prison. Prisons are a punishment when you do something bad. Also, prisons bring justice to the victim and if prisons aren’t doing their job then the victim would like to move the prisoner to a better prison. When a prison doesn't have these qualities then the prisoner should be set free.

No, prisoners should not be set free.

Alternatively, some people might disagree with this sentence. Even if prisons aren’t good, people who have committed bad crimes should go there because they were bad and they need to go to prison.Also, if the prisoners escape then they make their crime worse. In addition, if people know that there is no prison then crimes will go out of hand and Ecuador will be a very unsafe place to live. Moreover, the victim would want justice and there is no prison for the person who hurt them to go then they will feel there is injustice.

My opinion

In my opinion, prisoners should be set free because they need to learn to be good citizens and if a prison doesn’t teach them that, then why don’t let them learn it for themselves. We need to be able to trust prisons like we trust good schools. In the future, I think prisons should be inspected and different people would inspect different categories. Prisons are so important that we need them to work properly, and we could all agree that prisons in Ecuador do not work properly. Thank you.

Comments (2)

You must be logged in with Student Hub access to post a comment. Sign up now!

  • Prison's are made so that people who do crime are given punishment, but if those criminals get all the facilities in the prison's then they will never feel that they have did something wrong . If this is how the management of prisons happen then there is no use of prisons as the crime rate will keep on increasing. This will truly have a bad impact on the society especially children. There will be no justice formed and no one will be ashamed of doing crimes because there is no punishment. To make sure that there is no danger to a country the prison's should have strict law.

    Thank you.

  • I agree that prisoners need to be set free and that the new prison system in Ecuador is harsh and sentences kids who sometimes are not guilty to years, however sometimes people come to the conclusion that any and every action needs to be taken and its not fair.