This follows from the truism that no humanbeing should be made to suffer if such suffering cannot be justified by a concomitant gainto society.
No rational assessment of the kinds of activity that should be punished can beundertaken without some analysis of the purposes of punishment. Those purposesmost frequently mentioned are reformation, restraint, retribution, and deterrence（perhaps more easily remembered as the three "R"s and a "D" of punishment）.Purposes of PunishmentReformationWithout question, it is desirable for punishment to reform. Certainly, society gains andnobody loses if an individual who has transgressed against societys standards isrehabilitated.
There is, however, serious difference of opinion as to the relative importance ofreformation. Some believe that since criminals represent the worst in society, it isunjust to take tax dollars from those they consider more worthy to finance therehabilitation of those they deem less worthy. Others believe that reformation, whiledesirable, should be subordinated to other purposes, such as deterrence.
Generally speaking, however, reformation is regarded by criminologists as aworthwhile goal of punishment. The real objection to reformation is simply that itdoesnt work. This observation can be supported by the high degree of recidivismamong those who have been imprisoned. Moreover, it can be persuasively argued thatthe very nature of the prison system runs counter to the goal of reformation. Onedoesnt break a criminal of criminal tendencies by requiring him to associateexclusively with other criminals.
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