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A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

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191–200 of 513 posts

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If the cost of keeping him out of [society] exceeds the cost he inflicts by his presence, I'd say we should keep him incarcerated and spend less"

You know what it costs to imprison a human being for 40-50 years? I doubt it outweighs a couple of stolen wallets...

Party of the first part: If condition C holds, response R is called for.

Party of the second part (indignant): But condition C holds!

What's your point?

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#192
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Breaking and entering: $1000's of damage, per instance. Insider trading: $100,000's of damage, per instance. Enforcement level of insider trading is also low, so a person can commit many more times the crime of insider trading before they're caught.

Breaking and entering - very traumatic to someone. insider trading - traumatic to no one. I'm not sure what these "damages" you speak of are. Someone wanted to buy or sell stock, and an insider bought or sold it. Sure, they have more information, but someone always has more or different information. carl icahn and warren buffett have more information than me about a lot of things. yet we trade on the same market ever…

"insider trading -traumatic to no one."

When the whole Enron thing went down a few years back, my flatmate at the time lost her job, as an accountant in the UK as a result of that.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#193

This is pathetic. What country that claims to be a leader in human rights can justify this kind of justice? I'm American, and am continuously appalled to hear these types of stories. these stories are sadly not isolated either, and have come to almost be accepted. We are nearing a tipping point where we need to stand up for a better America. Screw the prison industry, and screw lobbyists, screw bipartisan squabbles.…

> What country that claims to be a leader in human rights can justify this kind of justice?

They claim to be the leader in a lot of things when it's plainly not true. Unfortunately, the only people that believe the marketing spin are those inside, or those in the poorest of countries. Everyone else knows it's a crock of shit.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#195

My thoughts on the best and the worst: > Anthony Jackson has a sixth-grade education and worked as a cook. He was convicted of burglary for stealing a wallet from a Myrtle Beach hotel room when he was 44 years old. According to prosecutors, he woke two vacationing golfers as he entered the room and stole a wallet, then pretended to be a security guard and ran away. Police arrested him when he tried to use the stolen…

> I don't understand this one at all. Shouldn't the truck owner have testified on his behalf? Declined to press charges?

in most cases, i think details are pretty important. here, not really.

let's say he straight up stole the truck. does he deserve life in prison? doubtful

> Declined to press charges?

Also, i'm pretty sure this isn't a thing. Only prosecutors can decide whether they want to press charges in criminal cases.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#196
post #151

The three strike laws make some sense as long as people conflate "felony" with genuinely serious crimes like rape or aggravated assault. If someone commits three consecutive rapes...well, who would complain about locking him up forever? The problem is in the increasing meaninglessness of the term "felony". If they limited it to grievous crimes, there wouldn't be much controversy. Also, it's weird to have something pr…

>If someone commits three consecutive rapes...well, who would complain about locking him up forever? I would. The primary purpose of prisons should be rehabilitation. Giving life sentences doesn't take into account that people can change.

Agreed. The death penalty is much better in that situation.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#197
post #175
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the US, we're allowed to criticize the government. If you're unhappy with that, maybe you'd like to move to North Korea, China, or any of those other countries where people like you are allowed to shut down critical thinking.

Didn't Snowden have to flee to China and then Russia so he could criticize his government with out fear of summary execution?

Criticism of government has it's limits. Snowden is questionable because what he said was not public knowledge and had crippling negative effects towards security of the state, but say, expressing your criticism of government by blowing up a federal building...

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible. Please, please take a step back and read what you wrote. Now, for each of those instances you described, please assume this is your uncle, brother, cousin etc? Do you still feel the same? No one is saying these people did nothing wrong. The main issue is that the punishment does not fit the crime. That's it. Simple. Where do we draw the line? Obviously for you the line is ok where it is at. But, frankly,…

you clearly don't know me at all. I have a cousin that has stolen large sums of money from and threatened bodily harm to my grandma along with several other convictions that i'd like to stay in prison for a long time. I've got an uncle that I have similar feelings for. Also, you should re-read what I wrote. I also said that perhaps these don't deserve life, but "a long time" does seem reasonable. Finally, how is secu…

You are right, I do not know you.

Anyways, let's agree to disagree on this.

Re: A living death: Sentenced to die behind bars for what?

#200
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you draw the line? I bet you wouldn't go for life in prison for someone who get three speeding tickets. Once we agree that there is a line, then it just comes down to which side of the line a particular crime is on. I don't see wallet theft as being all that serious. Yeah, it sucks to be the victim (been there, done that) but it's fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately, the point of letting h…

> I bet you wouldn't go for life in prison for someone who get three speeding tickets. Sure. > Once we agree that there is a line, then it just comes down to which side of the line a particular crime is on. I actually don't find this to follow, because your example is exceptionally poor. I don't favor speeding tickets at all; as far as I can see, they're just a way for governments to capriciously collect extra revenu…

> If the cost of keeping him out of it exceeds the cost he inflicts by his presence

You do realize that it costs $40,000+ per year to incarcerate someone, right? So to meet your justification for imprisonment, this guy would have to be an excellent criminal. Why not just give him $40,000 per year and let him be free? He'd probably not need to burgle anymore.

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