I posted this over on Ornery, but thought it might be interesting to hear what people think of it over here.
I think prisons as they stand now are mostly corrupt and amoral, colleges of crime where whatever bits of humanity and morality people had going into them is often stripped away by force or thrown away out of necessity. If we understand that the vast majority of those who enter prison will come out eventually, that they interact with people on the outside while they are in, it is also possible to see that prison may contribute to the very problems in society that it is supposed to help alleviate.
If prisons are to be made better in the future, then one of the things that many people have suggested is to seperate the 'good' prisoners from the 'bad' prisoners.
This article points out one of the problems with life sentences, with long sentences, in that people lose hope, if they had any to begin with, and revert to an attitude where they will grab anything, use anyone, to satisfy their needs while in prison. This drags down those prisoners who do want to do better and forces other prisoners to react to those who have embraced violence, with force, if those other prisoners want to stay alive.
This article, to me, raises the question of what to do with the worst of the worst if they are impeding the progress of other prisoners.
If near segregation doesn't work, does this force us to embrace the death penalty for the sake of the rest of the prisoners?
posted
By the way, this case has the largest number of people for whom the death penalty has ever been sought.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Hmmmm....makes one wonder if the penal colonies weren't such a bad idea? If England used Australia to send their worst of the worst, maybe we could do the same? We will send our worst of the worst to Australia.
Honestly, if it is between the choice of outright killing of people (which I have a problem with) or putting convicts on some island that, if they work it out right could survive with hard labor, I would take the island. I know it seems silly and speculative fiction-like but why not? It is effetively removing people from society while avoiding the nasty choice of killing someone.
Here is some aerable land, some seed, there is the fresh water and off you go. Bye now.
Posts: 896 | Registered: Apr 2003
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There's actually another alternative to the death penalty that I've heard about, which is the permanent, drug induced coma.... Perhaps that might be a working compromise.
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Oh, wait. I did say permanent. Let me check and make sure that it's not just there while the drugs are going through your system.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: There's actually another alternative to the death penalty that I've heard about, which is the permanent, drug induced coma.... Perhaps that might be a working compromise.
Ooooh, I can just see it now. A real life version of "Demolition Man" Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Post-graduate GrandTheftAuto. An EverQuest-style multi-player shared-reality where the object of the game is to join and rise up in the ranks of gangs contending to take over not merely the prison, but the entire prison system.
Rise up the ranks by: Figuring out hacks (against the game-system computer) to smuggle in drugs/weapons/etc; Creating drugs/weapons/etc from materials available in prison; Bribing guards (hacking the game-system computer} to ignore certain actions; Stealing and counterfeitting keys; enabling transfers between prisons/meetings; successful assassinations; successful assassinations with multiple witnesses who dare not tell; betrayals beyond retribution; etc, the possibilities are as wide as the imagination.
Somehow, I think somebody's probably already working on it.
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