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DoggPickle posted:Has anyone here actually been to an American Jail? I realize that I'm opening myself up to an insane amount of criticism, but the jail "experience" is heartbreaking, difficult on your SOUL and just generally the worst thing that could possibly happen to you in your lifetime. I was only in jail for 5 days, and I almost killed myself. I mean, the problem (partly) is that American prisons aren't prisons as such - they're torture chambers. It's just a stupid way to run the business end of a judicial system, and the results speak volumes about the strategy. The recidivism rate is appalling, and the states in the U.S. that double down on Tough On Crime are poo poo hole slums with no productivity and extremely high rates of crime / substance abuse. Nations operating with decent criminal justice systems and (relatively) light sentencing have superior metrics, full stop. It is objectively a better way to operate a justice system, assuming you want to improve society rather than receive personal gratification about how you totally owned that crook or whatever (and even from that latter angle, your odds at actually getting that gratification are extremely small. Most rapists walk away from courtrooms scot free, most white collar criminals never even see the inside of a courtroom, etc). As to whether or not it would be a good idea in abstract to kill serial murderers / sociopaths: David Berkowitz, the 'Summer of Sam' killer, was given six consecutive life sentences instead of being killed - and American society has reaped tangible benefit from his work inside of prisons while he's been alive. It turns out that even someone who once was an unrepentant monster can, in fact, change their behavior and become a productive member of society within an appropriate environment. In Berkowitz's case, that proper environment is proper within a tightly controlled & supervised cell; nevertheless, both he & everyone else are better for him living there. I can imagine an alternative reality where the same story may have been true for Ted Bundy. He was, afterall, a very brilliant lawyer & suicide hotline counsellor on top of being a maniac serial rapist & murderer. Instead we sent him to get electrocuted to death because heh gently caress THAT guy, I get a kick out of people being killed and this one's totally unsympathetic! "They DESERVE to get hosed-up for what they did!" is a grade schooler's approach to morality. Imagine if most of life was like that. We'd have cashiers busting the noses of every other geezer who walked into their store & society applauding them for it. Politics would be a outright bloodsport. There are places where things are like that, but we tend to refer to such places a failed states & not wish to emulate them.
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Mar 1, 2017 03:14
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:22 |
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