What does the contrast between 'eight weeks' and 'years' accomplish?
Short prison sentences are the worst of both worlds. They are too brief to allow any serious rehabilitation, yet long enough to cost an offender a job, a tenancy and sometimes custody of a child. A person leaves prison after eight weeks with nothing to return to, and is then more likely, not less, to offend again. Advocates of short sentences answer that they deliver a clear message and protect the public while the offender is inside. The message is real, but it is a message that community sentences with strict conditions can also deliver, at far lower cost, and without the damage to the offender's family. The public is protected for eight weeks; it is exposed for years if the sentence makes reoffending likelier.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. It sets a brief benefit against a longer-lasting risk
- Step 1: The last sentence protects the public for eight weeks but exposes it for years.
- Step 2: The numbers set a short-lived gain against a long-lived harm.
Answer
It sets a brief benefit against a longer-lasting risk.
Why not the others: The figures do not describe time served overall, community costs, family suffering or speed of rehabilitation.
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