"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.