On the Surface, Incapacitation May Appear as a Logical Means

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The Answer is Incarceration, especially in an adult prison, exposes younger offenders to higher-risk, more experienced inmates who can influence their lifestyle and help shape their attitudes.These prisons are "schools for crime." The short-term delinquency-reduction effect of incapacitating offenders is negated if the experience has the long-term effect of escalating the frequency and severity of their future criminality upon release.If crime and delinquency are functions of rational choice, the profits of illegal activity are sure to convince adolescents that "crime pays."There will always be someone ready to take the place of the incarcerated offenders and replace them in the gang, group, or clique.
New delinquents will be recruited and trained, offsetting any benefit accrued by incarceration.Imprisoning established offenders may open new opportunities for competitors who were suppressed by more experienced delinquents or controlled by their tougher rivals.Incarcerating gang members may open illegal markets to new groups and gangs who are even hungrier and more aggressive than the ones they replaced.Teens are unlikely to be incarcerated in a juvenile facility or sent to prison until well into their offending career.By the time they are arrested, waived, and sent to an adult prison, they are already past the age when they are likely to commit crime.
A strict incarceration policy may keep people in prison beyond the time they are a threat to society while a new cohort of high-risk adolescents is on the street.An incapacitation strategy is also terribly expensive.The prison system costs billions of dollars each year, and incarcerating a juvenile in some jurisdictions costs in excess of $50,000 per year.
Even if incarceration could reduce the crime rate, the costs would be enormous.Almost all delinquents eventually return to society.Because many of these delinquents are drug- and gang-involved, most come from comparatively few urban inner-city areas.
Their return may contribute to family disruption, undermine social institutions, and create community disorganization.Rather than acting as a crime suppressant, incarceration may have the long-term effect of accelerating crime rates.
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On the Surface, Incapacitation May Appear as a Logical Means

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