PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT. Our own Aeronmelon is going through some shit at the moment and could use some help. Check it out here and consider an upvote or a comment to push it into activity. Sorry, not something I do often or will be spamming. But I care about my friend and if I can get a couple more eyes on his situation then I’m going to try to do what I can. (Last one I promise. Just twice. Not going to spam but dude is a big part of the Lemmy community, especially with Trek, and he deserves the help. And to the mods, if this doesn’t fit and you want to remove? Go for it. I completely understand it and I am sorry)
Edit: Oh wait I’m the mod here. Well, I say it is fine
There is a tragically high recidivism rate for sexual predators, which is probably the best argument for long sentences: there aren’t many opportunities to abuse children in prison.
Though the American rehabilitation system is pretty weak in general, other nations have had much better results. Norway has a sex crime recidivism rate below 10% (vs 67% in the US).
So the solution still isn’t punishment?
Yeah, the solution is to have a functioning rehabilitation system. But in the US, with the system we currently have, it doesn’t seem to make a difference how long you keep them there. We actually have a higher recidivism from our rehabilitation than from doing nothing at all.
So, in order of effectiveness:
The only benefit to a long sentence is that it reduces the number of years they can spend harming children, though there’s a fairly high chance they abuse fellow inmates instead, who could then become abusers themselves once they get out, so the whole thing is fucked and stupid.