Эссе: Sending to prison - the only way of punishment

There is a growing debate about what should be done to the people that commit crimes. The public in general tend to believe that the best decision for criminals is to send them to prison. However, some claim that imprisonment doesn’t solve the problem. From my personal perspective there are punishments that will be more effective to manage with criminal level. Firstly, prisons have disgusting conditions in which offenders can become far more violent than they were before, because they are surrounded by cruel and dangerous people. Secondly, after prison all criminals have a problem with employment. Unemployed and evil they will commit more crimes to make their living. Finally, such punishment as community service will make more benefit to the society than imprisonment. Opponents of this view say that sending criminals to prison is the best kind of punishment. Offenders will understand that they need to 'pay' for all that they have done. Furthermore, that’s a great way of keeping them away from the society. However, to my mind imprisonment will teach criminals nothing better then how to commit worse crimes. The second reason for prison’s inefficiency is that a great majority of prisoners are mentally ill and need to be placed in special rehabilitation centres, not prisons. Taking everything into account, prisons can only protect society from definitely dangerous offenders, but in other occasions they are not that effective. To my mind, for not serious crimes there should be punishments such as community service and fines.