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Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

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41–50 of 63 posts

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#41

Interesting to me that the Venn diagram of the group of people who want "prison reform" and an end to overincarceration and the group of people who want Holmes locked up with the key thrown away is basically a perfect circle. Is Holmes such an imminent danger to society that she needs locked up and cordoned off from our communities?

Is it so bizarre that people are opposed to both over- and under-?

That's basic logic and fairness.

The two extremes are almost always both wrong.

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#42
post #40

Interesting to me that the Venn diagram of the group of people who want "prison reform" and an end to overincarceration and the group of people who want Holmes locked up with the key thrown away is basically a perfect circle. Is Holmes such an imminent danger to society that she needs locked up and cordoned off from our communities?

Likely a similar Venn diagram of people who say “the US should stop meddling in other countries problems” and then vehemently support arming Ukraine.

Nuance exists. Facts matter. The correct answer to every question isn't a universal constant known in advance of every possible question.

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#43
post #42
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely a similar Venn diagram of people who say “the US should stop meddling in other countries problems” and then vehemently support arming Ukraine.

Nuance exists. Facts matter. The correct answer to every question isn't a universal constant known in advance of every possible question.

Then I’d imagine they should hold a more nuanced position than “the US shouldn’t meddle in other countries affairs”.

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#44

Interesting to me that the Venn diagram of the group of people who want "prison reform" and an end to overincarceration and the group of people who want Holmes locked up with the key thrown away is basically a perfect circle. Is Holmes such an imminent danger to society that she needs locked up and cordoned off from our communities?

Punishment isn’t only about the crime in the past. Punishment is used as deterrence against possible future crimes by others - to show what will happen if they do something similar

I don't think it should be that, because that can cause people who committed not very serious crimes to be punished disproportionately as an example. It's unjust.

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#46
post #7

> there is one criminal justice system in this country. That's an illusion. There's almost no wealthy criminal that sees the walls of a prison - and if they do, they find ways to get out very quickly thanks to their connections.

In general, wealthy people make up a small proportion of the population and tend (though not always) towards greater intelligence, or at least education, than the average. Both of these factors make them less likely to show up in prisons in general. It doesn't have to be about connections and special favors. Sure, many wealthy people can afford better legal defense and the justice system definitely makes things easier for them, but the rich do indeed go to real-people prison if they fuck up badly enough and get caught doing it.

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#47

Wow she tells her probation officers that she wants to figure out how to continue monetizing her patents. That’s all you need to know about Holmes right there…

She's allowed to make money legitimately until she exhausted her appeals. She still owes a lot in restitution

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#48

Interesting to me that the Venn diagram of the group of people who want "prison reform" and an end to overincarceration and the group of people who want Holmes locked up with the key thrown away is basically a perfect circle. Is Holmes such an imminent danger to society that she needs locked up and cordoned off from our communities?

For many people disgusted by seeing a person like Holmes having it easy despite being egregariously guilty of criminal offenses against others in several terrible ways, it's not hypocrisy in the way you try to describe. Instead it's simply being angry that a justice system which regularly hammers much poorer people into the ground for often very minor offenses then treats a wealthy criminal like her with kid gloves in specific ways.

One can support reforms against punitive justice and still be disgusted by something like this, or one can also support prison reform while considering Holmes's crimes bad enough to merit a fairly strong degree of punishment in this specific case. Basically: complex subjects like this are full of nuance, and strawmen need not apply to and honest debate.

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#49
post #47

Wow she tells her probation officers that she wants to figure out how to continue monetizing her patents. That’s all you need to know about Holmes right there…

She's allowed to make money legitimately until she exhausted her appeals. She still owes a lot in restitution

It’s legal for her to try to profit from her Theranos patents?

Re: Holmes Belongs in Prison, Not $13,000-a-Month Manor, US Says

#50

Interesting to me that the Venn diagram of the group of people who want "prison reform" and an end to overincarceration and the group of people who want Holmes locked up with the key thrown away is basically a perfect circle. Is Holmes such an imminent danger to society that she needs locked up and cordoned off from our communities?

Believing that too many people go to jail for minor offenses or those which don’t endanger others isn’t incompatible with believing major crimes should still have jail time.

What’s especially worth considering here is what Holmes did: most people expect high standards for medical ethics since lying as she did could have irreversible impacts on people’s lives. Her fraud involved inaccurately telling people that they had cancer, or giving values which lead to changes in medication or other treatments. That isn’t as bad as it could have been – I don’t believe anyone was given a false negative on cancer, for example - but it’s absolutely toxic for trust in the medical system if it’s not strictly punished.

Similarly, as a corporate officer she lied repeatedly to investors, regulators, and the public.

What both of those have in common is that they’re positions of trust where fraud is relatively hard to catch. Millions of people are in positions where they could on a daily basis abuse their customers’ trust and potentially never be caught, and so we have to consider the deterrent effect as well. Doctors, bankers, CEOs, etc. are highly paid so a financial deterrent isn’t nearly as effective at preventing lapses as the possibility of jail time - your family trust can’t serve it for you - and those consequences also mean that the people around you aren’t going to help cover it up the way they might if it was profitable enough to look the other way.

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