system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do prisons exist?

Today I remembered some middle-school philosophy teachings about John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; and I've been wondering about the perspectives of each of these philosophers on various prison-related issue.

The first issue is that of prison as an institution. I was thinking Locke with his concept of a "blank slate" and Rousseau with his idea of society corrupting individuals would view prison as a rehabilitative measure--something that would encourage one to see the error in their ways, or provide them with time away from the corrupting influences of the outside world. Hobbes, who views people as inherently good or bad, would instead see prison as a permanent residence for evil folk, so that they can be prevented from committing any more heinous acts on innocents. 

I was also thinking about how the justice system (in the US) currently works and which parts of it align with which of the three philosophers. I think the most extreme sentences--like the death penalty and life in prison--are most in alignment with Hobbes, as they assume the person is wholly bad and cannot possibly be recovered in any meaningful way. Lesser crimes with lighter sentence are more in alignment with Locke and Rousseau (in my opinion), as these are more temporary measures intended to bring about changes in behavior. 

 I have a couple of unanswered philosophical questions from these three perspectives:

What if a person in prison permanently loses all of their memories? Are they still liable for their previous but forgotten criminal actions? 

What if a hacker loses their fingers while in prison? If their primary means to commit crimes is no longer available to them, should they remain in prison?

A common phrase that former convicts use is "I've paid my debt to society." This phrase suggests that a criminal act is like a loan that is to be paid off in the form of a prison sentence. How does this viewing of the prison system as a societal transaction agree/disagree with these three philosophers?
gpt
An accurate answer to the question of why prisons exist will have to take into account not only modern attempts to provide philosophical justifications for their existence, but also an account of the history of their formation and the ideological conditions that brought them into existence. Probably the most famous work of philosophy dealing this this question is Foucault's *Discipline and Punish*, but an even better place to start would probably be Angela Davis' *Are Prisons Obsolete,* which builds on Foucault while being more accessible and more US focused (you mentioned the US justice system).