Punishment is a common tactic used to modify undesirable behavior, and can be effective in some instances, when used sparingly and when it immediately follows the undesirable behavior. If you catch your dog in the act of peeing on the carpet, for example, scolding or a gentle slap on the nose can deter future incidents. However, any behaviorist will also tell you that its effectiveness is not only limited, but can also have all kinds of negative ramifications, often worse than the undesirable behavior you're trying to modify in the first place. For instance, punishment focuses on what the person should not do, which can actually serve to reinforce that behavior. It can also elicit anger and aggressive behavior in the child or adult (or dog for that matter). It's typically not sustainable, and is negatively reinforcing to the punishment giver (unless you're a sadist). In addition, you will likely have to keep upping the punishment "dosage" for it to be effective, and the receivers can quickly become desensitized to the punishment.

Positive reinforcement, on the other hand, is much more effective and sustainable. When you reward desirable behavior and ignore or de-emphasize undesirable behavior, you are far more likely to elicit desirable behavior in the future. Of course, if your child is beating your other child with his toy, you should probably intervene instead of ignoring the behavior. But you get the point.

Now consider the fact that our entire criminal justice system is based almost entirely on punishment. For example, we put violent criminals in prison with other violent criminals where the antisocial behavior that landed them in the pen in the first place is perpetually reinforced. The end result is no shock to anyone who understands even the most basic principles of human behavior: those individuals, when they get out of prison, are far more dangerous to themselves, their friends and family, and their communities, and they are not only ill-prepared to survive (let alone thrive), but their propensity to engage in antisocial behavior has actually *increased*. What happens to these people? They rob, steal, kill, and return to the prison system, where all of those punishers serve to reinforce their undesirable behavior even further . . . or they kill themselves.

Not only that, but we also put thieves and drug dealers, most of whom do not not have a strong propensity toward violence and who commit crimes primarily for economic reasons, next to rapists and murderers, where they must now learn these antisocial behaviors in order to survive in prison. In other words, our criminal justice system creates more antisocial behavior in perpetual fashion.

Doesn't anybody see this? America puts more people in prison than any nation on Earth, and our criminal justice system is actually leading to a more dangerous and violent society. Now there are only a small group of people who benefit from this insane system which is so obviously broken and backwards, and they are as follows: the rich white people whose lives are sufficiently insulated from most of the repercussions of the system, and whose privileged status is protected by its perpetuation, the keepers of the criminal justice system themselves, because it makes them necessary, and of course the millionaires who run these for-profit prisons, and the shareholders who profit from their raping of society. And these prison companies hire lots of really expensive and persistent lobbyists who are constantly pressuring our legislators to enact more and more draconian laws, which further entrenches this system, merely for the gaudy profit of a small handful of people. And of course the police blindly protect and enforce this corrupt system while mostly poor people of color continue to be hauled off to these modern-day slave factories.

This is the kind of behavior we'd expect from a third-world dictatorship, not the beacon of democracy and the globe's moral enforcer. Take a good look folks, because that is exactly what is happening in our society, and it is high time we faced the uncomfortable truth about who we are as a nation, because if this system continues to be left unchecked, the ugliness and brutality that is our criminal justice system will only get worse, and the ending will not be pretty for any of us.