I’m only semi-reasonable. :)
I tend to think of the victims first and how, say, a 20 y/o rape victim might feel about her convicted rapist getting pretty pictures in his cell to help his mood.
Paul had no pretty pictures during his confinement...at least it wasn’t mentioned. There are some criminals that can find recovery and a future positive life on the outside and we should focus on those. There are others that only God can mend. We waste very limited resources on them till He does.
Again, purely kicking around opinions....I would much rather jails put inmates to work. Labor. Something. Anything. Teach them a trade. if they work at it and play by the rules, they continue. If they cause trouble, they stay in their cage and rot. These are the hardened ones. The first timers; the clearly recoverable; the non-violent; they should be give a 2nd chance. We can agree on that at least.
Paul had no pretty pictures during his confinement
As a Christian, I'd rather model my thinking after Paul than after his pagan captors.
I would much rather jails put inmates to work.
I agree. Idle minds and idle hands too often tend toward the devil's business.
Teaching a trade, and supplying an academic education, are the only two “rehabilitation” concessions I’d back - as noted earlier, they’re going to return to society at some point (and if not, they still contribute to the society within the prison).
Such articles invariably fail to address the chronically destructive, those who are incarcerated precisely because they refuse to contribute & cooperate with others. At some point every individual has to choose productivity, and must learn that there is a limit to the contributions & cooperation of others in response - “solitary confinement” is precisely for that purpose: the unpleasant dead end where there is no beauty, no joy, no assistance, just decay & demise until either one repents or dies.