A man who was accidentally released from prison 88 years early

Post by joshstrange » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 7:41 PM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #24

joshstrange wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI "because I want the person to suffer" is not a valid reason to lock someone up. We lock people up as a punishment just like your parents may have sent you to your room when you were acting up. We do it under the thinking of they won't do it again once they've paid their debt but that thinking is flawed on SO many level. Among them are: 1. Prison does NOT reform people in fact it pushes many deeper into a life of…

> FYI "because I want the person to suffer" is not a valid reason to lock someone up. I don't know if it's valid, but it certainly a reason why we lock people up. "An eye for an eye" is a universal principle and I assume victims expect some type of revenge. Maybe that's something we should refrain from in a perfect world, but I don't think we're there yet!

Post by kelnos » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 7:45 PM UTC

hyperbovine wrote: post #8

mschuster91 wrote: post #4

Talk about cruel punishments, locking up someone for two fucking robberies without any deaths for nearly a century is unreasonable, cruel and defies everything our civilization stands for. But hey, private prison operators need to make money and police/DA/any part of the justice system profits from being "tough on crime"... Thank God I'm German, even if you end up killing someone you'll at most get 15 years (okay, th…

Fifteen years while loved ones of the deceased spend the rest of their lives in mourning? Thank God I'm not.

Post by mikeash » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 7:46 PM UTC

bch wrote: post #32

mikeash wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another side of this is that the harsher you make the punishments for small crimes, the less you discourage moving up to bigger crimes. If you're robbing a place and your punishment for being caught is effectively life in prison, what reason do you have not to murder all the potential witnesses to improve your odds of getting away with the crime? All you have is morality, and I don't want to rely on the morality of c…

> Another side of this is that the harsher you make the punishments for small crimes, the less you discourage moving up to bigger crimes. Maybe everybody should go to prison for a while to stop crime before it even starts. Disproportionate penalties may be as likely to harden them as reform them. What you get out isn't a repentant model citizen. Unless your goal is to let these people rot and die and just release cor…

Post by venomsnake » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 7:52 PM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #20

mschuster91 wrote: post #4

Talk about cruel punishments, locking up someone for two fucking robberies without any deaths for nearly a century is unreasonable, cruel and defies everything our civilization stands for. But hey, private prison operators need to make money and police/DA/any part of the justice system profits from being "tough on crime"... Thank God I'm German, even if you end up killing someone you'll at most get 15 years (okay, th…

Another side of this is that the harsher you make the punishments for small crimes, the less you discourage moving up to bigger crimes. If you're robbing a place and your punishment for being caught is effectively life in prison, what reason do you have not to murder all the potential witnesses to improve your odds of getting away with the crime? All you have is morality, and I don't want to rely on the morality of c…

Post by wehadfun » Tue, Apr 07, 2015, 7:55 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #4

Talk about cruel punishments, locking up someone for two fucking robberies without any deaths for nearly a century is unreasonable, cruel and defies everything our civilization stands for. But hey, private prison operators need to make money and police/DA/any part of the justice system profits from being "tough on crime"... Thank God I'm German, even if you end up killing someone you'll at most get 15 years (okay, th…