IELTS task 2: Sentence or Education ?

Prison is the common way in most countries to solve the problems of crime. However, a more effective solution is to provide people with a better education? To what do you agree or disagree?

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Many people believe that the reduction of crime rate is achieved through well-trained education than prison sentence. In my opinion, I disagree with this point of view because I consider these approaches both have distinctive merits and should each play an integral part in tackling crime.

On the one hand, I would agree that prison is an effective measure to deal with offenders. From legal prospective, governments in every countries should be tough on crimes and enforce the law to ensure the safety of law-abiding citizens. When imprisoned and under stringent control, crimes can do nothing harmful to society. Instead, they can have time to think over and have a chance to make a fresh start after being released. Another reason worth mentioning is that a person who commits a crime must learn that unlawful actions definitely leads to catastrophic consequences. The murder, for example, must be long-lastingly imprisoned or even serve a capital punishment to pay the price for what they did. Moreover, when serving a prison sentence, the illegal will be separated and isolated from the community, especially their beloved families and friends.

On the other hand, I also consider that education can act as a deterrent to crimes. Firstly, when students are better trained with knowledge of laws and legislation to a certain extent, they are certainly made fully cognizant to abide the laws and avoid themselves being the victims in some cases. For example, when armed with the traffic rules, students can commute to their school in a more safer way. Secondly, the authority figures usually provide moral and job-training lessons in prison with an aim to help the offenders soon reintegrate into the society. In this way, the crimes will dispel the idea that their lives have to be put an end behind bars.

In conclusion, I would regard the prison measure as a powerful weapon to address the problem of crimes. Besides, I think education should not be a sole measure to fight against this societal issue.