ianmiller999

.....In a life sentence?

If there is no doubt what so ever that a particular person commited a crime which would see them have a life sentence, I personnaly do not see why the tax payer should be billed probably into the hundreds of thousands for one person to be in prison for life.

Not neccessarily suggesting death penalty which would be a lot cheaper. How about a nice deserted island in the middle of nowhere, where they have to support themselves I.E. catch their own food etc.

The Zohan

Quote
"Not neccessarily suggesting death penalty which would be a lot cheaper. How about a nice deserted island in the middle of nowhere, where they have to support themselves I.E. catch their own food etc."
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Bin there, done that about 215 years or so ago, it was called Australia wasn't it. Look at Oz now, I know where i would rather be living and bringing my kids up.

ianmiller999

Wasn't Britain a prospering empire then as well ;-)

Drunken Bungle Whore

As I understand it the point of parole is that prinsoners have an incentive to behave and show remorse.

If life always meant life then there could be a lot more anarchy in the prisons.

Not a perfect system - but I'm sure they're open to suggestions.

ianmiller999

I just can't see why it costs so much to keep a person in prison. Why not power the country with prisonners on a tred mill, turning the generator, or something.

GaryK

Probably cos it keeps all the do-gooders happy, getting *properly* punished for committing a criminal offence? nah that would never do now would it!

Drunken Bungle Whore

OK - this is the question I always ask. Has anyone got any experience of working in a prison or even being a prisoner?

I've done work with Prison Education in several prisons and also have some experience of working with them on the outside - and I have to say that I'm really not sure what the answer is.

Historically harsh punishments haven't worked. America pretty much proves the futility of the death sentence. And I'm not sure that being soft on criminals works either.

I've spent a lot of time inside prisons and I know I never ever want to be sent to one.

Perhaps it's like smoking. Being caught always happens to someone else?

And how do you distinguish between the soft criminals - committed some sort of fraud because theu're destitute - from the habitual. Or don't we need to distinguish?

SJ_Skyline

Sorry to disagree DBW but when you say:

America pretty much proves the futility of the death sentence.

well, these people don't go and re-offend do they?

Drunken Bungle Whore

True - but it doesn't seem to stop them doing it in the first place. Punishment should be an effective deterrent to stop people doing stuff in the first place. Plus it costs more to sentence someone to death rather than to life (all the many, many, appeals)

Scooby96

Ok I agree it might not stop them doing it in the first place but it damn well stops a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 50th offence!

Holy Ghost

the deterrence only works for society at large and prevents offences wholesale: i don't think we can expect it work for the recidivist offenders. some people are simply career criminals, either by nature, by nurture, or a combination of both. i guess in the same way that some people are fantastic athletes or genius scientists or artists.

Scooby96

No one would be a career anything if they were stopped in their tracks early on. Flogg em I say, cut their genitals off or medically (via implant) castrate rapists / child abusers etc.

And for ***** sake stop criminals being able to sue their victims if they get hurt whilst trying to rob / assault / murder etc!

Drunken Bungle Whore

I take your point Scooby96. But despite what the media leads us to believe, murder is still a relatively rare occurence. The death sentence could only be used in extreme cases.

Most of the crime that blights our day to day lives is theft, fraud, 'minor' violence. We can't sentence all those people to death - so what could we do?

A lot of the people I worked with were inside for fraud/ theft crimes. I couldn't change the legal system, or how long they got, so instead I worked with a company to put a better education system in place. It's a fact that a lot of theft crime re offenders do so because they come out, they don't have any money, they don't know how to get any money, so they nick some because that's what they grew up seeing.

We tried (with a fair ammount of success) to teach them how to get money, benefits and jobs without having to resort back to stealing.

I had a major crisis of conscience before I started that project - but the way I see it, if it stops just 1 person reoffending then it's a start.

Edited to add the quote part cos I'm not sure about his other post!

[Edited by Drunken Bungle ***** - 8/8/2003 12:19:30 PM]

ianmiller999

It may not stop them doing it but it would save the country a whole lot of money.

Drunken Bungle Whore

No it wouldn't - it costs more to sentence someone to death than it does to keep them in prison for life.

If they were executed straight away I'd agree (but then there may be many more mistakes). The appeals against a death sentence can drag on for 10 - 20 years - thus costing waaaaay more.

ianmiller999

I won't disagree with you because I have no evidence. This society is getting to beaurocratic.