[zanny]

The original intent of incarceration was to remove those from society who we could not trust to peacefully participate in it.

That intent is naturally lost today - the mass incarceration of drug users being only a portion of a larger pie of injustice and horror committed on a daily basis in the US that includes other atrocities such as police brutality and civil asset forfeiture.

Obviously in cases where prisoners kill one another, in a sane world, the constable and other administration of the prison would be held accountable, as would any officers who betrayed their duty to let it happen. It is always someones fault you put individuals who we deemed untrustable in the presence of others to be placed in circumstances to harm others again.

Unsurprisingly, the reality is that locking people up is incredibly expensive. We spend more per prisoner than we do per dozen students in public schools each year. The practical costs of incarceration are huge, let alone the social and economic ones. It should be unsurprising the people are less receptive to tremendous taxes to pay for, by far, the highest incarceration rates in the world.

[im3w1l]

> The original intent of incarceration was to remove those from society who we could not trust to peacefully participate in it.

Do you have a source for that? The Code of Hammurabi seems to talk about imprisonment as the appropriate punishment for defaulting on your debt, and the ancient Greek seem to have used it for that reason as well.

[zanny]

Talking more about modern incarceration. Historically, banishment, exile, or execution were much simpler solutions to those who could not peacefully participate in society.

The intent of modern incarceration, at least in civilized nations, is the recognition (through study) that punishment is not rehabilitative or particularly beneficial for society as a whole. To use prison as a punishment can only act as a deterrent, not as a remedy.