The Dungeon is
Samuel Coleridge commenting on the way society goes about treating its
prisoners. Coleridge debates if a prison or a dungeon is truly the best way to
reform/rehabilitate a person who offends against society and this argument is
still alive in many forms today. Prisons have been around for a very long time
and they seem to make perfect sense; when someone causes harm to someone else
or the greater populous, we take them out of the population so they cannot
continue to do harm. Coleridge argues that taking these people out of society
and surrounding them with other criminals is only causing more harm to that
person whereas they should be receiving some sort of support or help. According
to Coleridge, prisons deform souls to a point where they were better people
before they entered. Colridge’s answer to this problem show the person all the
good in the world and all the world has to offer and eventually, the soul in
question will be touched by love and beauty and not wish to cause any more
harm.
While I may not fully agree with Coleridge on how
he thinks prisoners should be helped, I do agree that there is something wrong
with the system we have been using. I feel in many aspects prisons are used as
a deterrent or forced retribution where they should be used to rehabilitate and
help prisoners be able to become productive members of society. I realize there
will be outliers and not every can or wants to be helped but that does not mean
that everyone who ends up in a prison must be punished so severely.
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