The prison is meant for reformation, not punishment

The prison is meant for reformation, not punishment. Justify this statement with reference to the play ‘The Bishop’s Candlesticks’.

Prisons are actually meant for reforming criminals but in actual fact this is not the case in most prisons. The treatment given out to convicts is very harsh and converts them into hardened criminals. This is also true for convicts who have committed minor crimes and they lose their trust in the justice system, so that they commit more crimes when released. In ‘The Bishop’s Candlesticks’, the convict has turned into a hardened criminal due to the torture that he underwent in prison. If the justice system was more turned towards reforming criminals, probably the convict would not have tried to escape and would have become a good man once he was released.