A better system of punishment

If you read this article (link), you'll read a story about a judge in Pennsylvania who gave a bunch of drug dealers the choice between a full 2 year stint in prison and 1 year followed by parole if they learned English in the first year.

I read a while back that the number one predictor of recidivism is whether or not the convict learned something while in prison. You're much less likely to show up back in the dock if you pick up your GED or an Associates while in prison.

At the time I was in grad school, and sort of loathing it. I thought then that it would be a good idea to have sentences measured by degrees instead of years. If you get brought up on minor charges, you have to learn a new skill; felonies require an associates, bachelor's, masters or PhD depending on the severity. As long as you're planning to let people out at the end, you could match the current sentencing with how long it takes to get a degree.

You'd just have to find a way to provide education and then stop numskulls who want an education and can't afford it from committing crimes to get into college. I think, though, that if even a good school like UM had a serious risk of bum-rape on campus, I would have declined to go, so perhaps you wouldn't need a lot of discouragement to keep it from seeming as though crime was being rewarded.

I guess the wisdom of this plan hinges primarily on whether the criminal system is primarily designed to rehabilitate or punish. Actually, this does both, so maybe not.