Re: POL/PHIL: Crime and Punishment (was: Re: No Federal Parole)

From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Mon Jan 29 2001 - 14:33:28 MST


 Corwyn J. Alambar <nettiger@best.com> Wrote:

> I personally would argue that prison should be more a rehabilitative
> forum than a forum for punishment.

But nobody has the slightest idea how to rehabilitative hardened criminals.
Sure it happens on very rare occasions but nobody knows how or why, and I sure
wouldn't want to bet my life that a murderer won't kill again, which is exactly what
I'd be doing if I let him out. I do agree that life imprisonment without the possibility
of parole is a bad idea, especially if you don't have capital punishment. It's unfair
to the guards and unfair to the other inmates who may have committed much less
serious crimes. You take a murderer who grew up in a bad environment and put him
in much worse one and beg him not to kill anybody else, but then tell him there is no
way we can punish you any more if you do. It's a prescription for making a monster.
However this problem is not so large that a few thousand volts of electricity won't solve it.

        John K Clark John K Clark



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:26 MDT