Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Breotan wrote:
One reason, actually. People commit crimes. If a man is is prison for murder, in almost every case it's because he killed someone.

Reductionist twaddle. Obviously on a personal level committing a crime is very strongly related to ending up in prison for committing a crime. But given the US has pretty similar rates of crime to other developed countries, then you have to consider that there are outside factors at play.

The answer should be pretty clear – in the US you go to jail for crimes that aren’t punished with jail as often in other developed countries. Whether that’s a good thing or not is up to the individual, but it is what it is.

 whembly wrote:
In my early years, I was gung-ho about the death penalty.

Now? I'm comfortably against it 100%.

The state shouldn't be executing it's own people imo.

Me and Scooty agrees on something...

Whereas I’m increasingly ambivalent to the death penalty I’m concerned about the effect of the death penalty on increasing the likelihood of false verdicts, but other than that, I don’t see that big a difference between the two. Either way the life of the victim and the attacker are both completely wasted.

If being in prison is like being dead, I think we're doing something wrong. You should be able to live some kind of fulfilling life in prison.

 HiveFleetPlastic wrote:
If being in prison is like being dead, I think we're doing something wrong. You should be able to live some kind of fulfilling life in prison.

Only if you see prisoners still as human beings... which obviously some people here do not...

 HiveFleetPlastic wrote:
If being in prison is like being dead, I think we're doing something wrong. You should be able to live some kind of fulfilling life in prison.

If you're in prison for the rest of your life, then you will be playing an extremely minor role in raising your children, and if you don’t have children, well then you’re not going to have any at all now. You will have no chance to do real work, effectively denying you the ability to impact society or develop youself. The isolation security requirements of maximum security will minimise your social contact.

And that whole time you will be living with the memory of whatever heinous crime you did to put you in prison.

But hey, in a good program you’ll have like an oil painting class, or a chance to work on car engines or something. Living!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 treslibras wrote:
Only if you see prisoners still as human beings... which obviously some people here do not...

What in the actual fething hell?