Can we borrow the USA death penalty?
- Thread starter gtbob
- Start date
The three squares are pretty sparse and there are no seconds.
No air conditioning or heating, either....only the ones on the bottom floors have electrical outlets for fans.
Gymn facilities are an empty rec yard for general pop, perhaps a few exercise pieces but no free pieces that can be used to bash an enemie's head. There's a wire fenced cage with a basketball hoop and hopefully a basketball for the bad boys in more restrictive housing and only an hour a day and even then only if they behave well.
Health care is very inexpensive ($100/year) and they cannot be denied health care if they have no money or not enough to pay the $100.
Can't speak to the treatment of pensionsers....
All in all, not exactly the Hilton...but certainly not as bad as sleeping in cardboard under freeway exchanges, either.
Doug
Pete McCluskey.
Lifetime Supporter
Doug, I was talking about Brisbane, I know nothing of Houston but believe all gaols should be a punishment not a better life style.
Yeah but you'll end up trimming some fat gangbanger's toenails for free too....
I agree that punishment should be ONE of the goals of imprisonment...the loss of liberty should be one of those punishments.
There should be more goals of imprisonment, too...unfortunately the huge majority of the "offenders" will be released either on parole or after satisfying their sentence, and some of them refuse parole and choose to serve their sentences so that they will not have to answer to a parole officer. Those are the ones we should hope get more from incarceration than just punishment...if all they perceive prison having been is punishment when they get out they are ready for revenge (yes, I know that is deranged thinking, but they usually think they were justified in whatever it was that got them incarcerated, so....). There is a small majority who chooses to try to better themselves...GED courses are free for those who need to get a high school equivalency certificate, and we should want that because without at least that much they stand no hope of employment and will turn to crime again to survive. College classes can be taken if their behaviors are exemplary and they DO have to pay for the classes, they aren't free as some people have claimed. Some of the units have programs where the offenders can learn a skilled craft...for example upholstery or small engine repair or silversmithing....and that can lead to gainful employment once they are released.
The goal for those who are not in for life without parole should be to help them re-integrate into our society when they are released, both economically so they do not turn to crime to support themselves once they get out but also behaviorally so that they are more likely to avoid breaking laws again. Offenders can be written "a case" for the slightest misbehaviors...can lose priveleges or be put into a very lonely placement for extended periods for just refusing to step aside when ordered to do so. The goal is to retrain them to be more compliant with the rules of prison, so that they will be more compliant with the rules of society once they are out among us again.
We can't keep every law-breaker in prison for the rest of their lives...it's just not defensible for those with lesser offenses. The punishment should fit the crime...not exceed it, or we could be viewed as criminals for having violated their "rights", and believe me, the courts have granted them rights. A big part of my job is handling complaints and keeping us out of court.
Cheers, Pete!
Doug
This is all well and good for the thieves, muggers, hooligans, motoring offenders and general assholes that were down on their luck with no hope or future. What do you do with peado`s , murderers and rapist`s. They will serve their time and their old inhibitions will take control. Its been proven here in the uk that a good percentage of sex offenders are released to offend again, some of these fuckers are solicitors,judges,police chiefs ,school teachers and so on, they dont need carpentry lessons.
Bob
I'm not familiar with Australia's penal system, Bob, but here where I work if someone is convicted of a sexually related crime (other than, say, prostitution or maybe violating the 3-foot rule in the strip bars) they are placed in Sex Offender programs and must satisfactorally complete them before they are released. They must register as sex offenders once they are out in our society (although, not all do, but they can either have their parole revoked for not doing so or be charged with another crime if they are not on parole.) School teachers who are convicted of sexual crimes lose their teaching certificates, no questions asked (it's called "moral turpitude"), so they need another skill if they are going to support themselves when they are released. About the only ones who commit sex crimes in the US and then go back to their jobs are politicians and celebreties :thumbsdown:
Judges and policemen, if convicted of a crime and placed in jail, lose their certifications and cannot return to that line of work, but even more importantly they are subjected to predation in the prisons when they are recognized by offenders they have arrested or sentenced, so they are most often held in protective custody and quite often serve their sentences in states a considerable distance from the state where they practiced law enforcement..."interstate compact" is the process whereby states "trade" one offender for another...a judge from TX may go to Maine and a cop from Maine may serve out his sentence in TX, that sort of thing.
None of this has anything to do about the repetive violation issue with sex offenders...that's why I asked if anyone remembers "A Clockwork Orange". It was an incredible movie about society's attempt to "program" a sex offender with shock therapy paired with porn....the goal was to establish a response that was aversive to a stimulus that was felt to be the motivation for the crime...and IIRC it had a Porsche 917 or a P3 or some other awesome mid-engine car in it, too.
Another issue with sex offenders...they always serve "straight time", no parole, no good time for behavior or work...if they are sentenced to 10 years, they can't get out before 10 years. I like that! An acquaintance" whom I now call a "scumbag" became a crack addict and at one time must have done something to his 5 year old grand-daughter, he was convicted on two counts and given 6 years on each. My only regrets are that they weren't longer sentences and that the judge did not order that they had to be served consecutively...most offenders with multiple crimes are allowed to serve their sentences concurrently :furious:
At one time the penal system had prison ships...huge floating jails way out in the ocean and if anyone wanted to try their chances at an excape they were welcome to jump overboard. Maybe life sentences for sex offenders on a prison ship might be the answer...they could feed the sharks if they felt their chances were better in the water and nobody would care.
Cheers!
Doug
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marc
Lifetime Supporter
Public Hangings were very popular here a hundred years ago. That was why crime was so low during that time. Although now you would think that there was more crime then than now by the TV Shows. Also back then there was much more "instant gratification". No 10 years or more of appeals and some PW governor would stay the execution. Its Get R Done soon after the judge ruled.
I love Ron White's dissertation on the subject during his 'act'. Remember?
"In Texas, we have th' death penul-tee...and we yeeeeeeeeeuz it..."
Public hangings in the USA continued until at least the 1960's mate...
