Putting criminals into prisons is not an effective way to deal with them

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Putting criminals into prisons is not an effective way to deal with them. Instead, education and job training should be offered.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer:

It is evident that crime poses a serious threat to our society. However, some people believe offenders should be offered education and vocational training instead of sending them to jail. Personally, I partially agree with this opinion for some following reasons.

On the one hand, petty offenders, also called non-violent criminals, like shoplifting or robbery is not considered as a serious crime; therefore, offering education and vocational training makes it possible to handle them. It is behaviour undeniable fact that there are a growing number of juveniles breaking laws these days. The leading cause of this phenomenon is that they are receiving little or even no education. Furthermore, broken families or lack of parents’ concerns also spoil the children and lead them to become young criminals. For those reasons, they deserve a second chance for rehabilitation, and education is an excellent medication to heal them. If they are well educated, there will be no reason for them to re-offend. By contrast, education, without which the possibility of re-offence is at a quite high rate despite how long they are in jail. In addition to a vast majority of people offending against the law lives below the poverty line. Ultimately, with vocational training, prisoners after getting out of prison may possess job skills that give them a chance to rejoin the community without discrimination.

On the other hand, this is not to say that we are too lenient to violent criminals. A long sentence in jail or even a lifetime sentence may be an optimal solution for those who commit serious crimes such as murder, armed robbery or even drug trafficking; because their behaviour severely threatens the safety of society. Substantial evidence of this is that the murderers should incur a long time in prison so that they are kept away from other people in order not to be a hazard to the community at all. In addition, imprisonment can act as a warning for those who have the intention of committing a crime.

In conclusion, the punishment should depend on how seriously the lawbreakers make, and authorities should maintain the co-existence of both imprisonment and criminal proceedings to ensure the safety of society as well as to build up the civilised society.

[ Written by – Vuhaithi ]