The core idea of incentivizing prisons to reduce recidivism seems very reasonable. If it’s not currently being done, it definitely seems worth trying. At least for the experimental data of whether or not it’s a good idea (although politicians wouldn’t be able to admit to that reasoning).
Do you know if this is currently being done in any form? Are there other industries/contexts where similar things are being done? Successes? Failures?
This is really complex issue. What “should” be done depends on a lot of factors. You don’t seem to have addressed/emphasized this. I think you should have.
However, I think people often use that sort of argument as a cop out, and I certainly won’t do that. Relevant questions include “Do we expect that your proposal is better than what’s currently being done (we don’t need to be 100% sure for it to be worth trying)?”. And “Do we expect that your proposal is better than other sensible proposals?” And “How ‘high of a ceiling’ does this idea have? How much upside? What’s the best case scenario?”.
I also want to point out that there are two separate questions at play here:
1) What policy would be best? If you had the power to snap your fingers and implement a policy, what would it be?
2) How practical is the proposal? Will it ever get adopted? What would have to happen in order for it to be adopted?
The core idea of incentivizing prisons to reduce recidivism seems very reasonable. If it’s not currently being done, it definitely seems worth trying. At least for the experimental data of whether or not it’s a good idea (although politicians wouldn’t be able to admit to that reasoning).
Do you know if this is currently being done in any form? Are there other industries/contexts where similar things are being done? Successes? Failures?
This is really complex issue. What “should” be done depends on a lot of factors. You don’t seem to have addressed/emphasized this. I think you should have.
However, I think people often use that sort of argument as a cop out, and I certainly won’t do that. Relevant questions include “Do we expect that your proposal is better than what’s currently being done (we don’t need to be 100% sure for it to be worth trying)?”. And “Do we expect that your proposal is better than other sensible proposals?” And “How ‘high of a ceiling’ does this idea have? How much upside? What’s the best case scenario?”.
I also want to point out that there are two separate questions at play here:
1) What policy would be best? If you had the power to snap your fingers and implement a policy, what would it be?
2) How practical is the proposal? Will it ever get adopted? What would have to happen in order for it to be adopted?