"Why is it reasonable to believe in prisons, but not in the hell?"

[The Grand Nudger]

Prisons exist.  It's conceivable that some prisons are more or less of a good thing.

OK, how can one rationally believe prisons are a good thing? How can putting a criminal into a place from which he will return with even more psychological problems be a good thing?

Well...understand that you're only getting my pov here - there are arguments to be had.....but, I don't think that's a good thing.  That would be an example of a More Bad™ prison.  Thing is - prison isn't supposed to be a creator -or- a solution of/to psychological problems.  The word that you're searching for there is therapy.  

Let me give you a close example.  I used to go out at 0-dark thirty body snatching in your neighborhood.  We weren;t looking for people with psychological problems that could be made worse or better by our imprisoning them - we were looking for people who..by their imprisonment, would lead to more or less dead or injured -other- people.  Real assholes.  

I suspect that nothing that was done to them after we rolled them up ever cured them of any psychological issue they had, assuming they had any at all, which I doubt. I very strongly suspect that at least some prisons are full of people who we rolled up that went in okay and will either never come out, or will come out very much Not Okay.

That's pretty bad..but, for the most part, I find it hard to sympathize with pimps who whore little girls.....for example. I suppose I always knew that their treatment would be worse than the crime (think about that for second)....but that never stopped me from rounding motherfuckers up. Frankly, it took a substantial amount of self control to deliver them in the first place. I'd have shot them on sight. All that stopped me was knowing better. It' not as if anyone was telling me no, or that I wouldn't skate past an AAR.