While this doesāt necessarily remove the need for police completely, one of the reasons kids, disabled people or old people act out is because we donāt listen to them or give them choices. Giving people dignity and power over their lives and showing them that we respect them and trust them to act in a civilised way is a good way to see them acting in that way. In all of these cases, it requires those with responsibility not to see themselves as superior to others and not to have the goal of controlling their behaviour. Accountability and lack of hypocrisy are also important, as well as showing that you are acting in the groupās interests. Empowering people rather than controlling them will still result in some disappointing you and not acting in the interests of the group, but this is even more the case when you adopt the attitude that these people only understand violence and force. People often learn oppositional behaviour from rigid leaders.
Iām also really not sure how much of a deterrent prison is, or why itās so important that we punish bad behaviour if this punishment makes people more likely to reoffend. (Doing nothing is probably even worse, but there are more proactive options).
Itās no deterrent at all, because the vast majority of offenders either (a) think they wonāt get caught, or (b) are not in a state where rational contemplation of consequences is a factor.
As a general rule, never imprison anyone unless you plan on doing it permanently. Prison works for quarantine; it doesnāt work for rehabilitation, deterrence or justice.
Iām fine with permanent quarantine for those who are intolerably harmful to others (rapists, murderers, etc). For everyone else, restorative justice is a much better idea.
I think itās perfectly possible to both quarantine the actively harmful from society and help them work towards a restorative solution. It would be a very rare case that would require permanent quarantine with no hope of release.
This would require a radical rethink of both crime and criminal justice systems. Which I donāt see happening anytime soon. I can see/feel why vengeance is too often preferred over justice.
