criminal inefficiency

[Savaric]

This just totally pisses me off: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe...eut/index.html

Some drunk teenager decides he's feeling beligerant and stabs a bunch of people for the fuck of it. This infuriates me, senseless fucking violence. This kid should just have been beaten to death with ball bats on the spot, start on his legs and work their way up. People that do shit like this don't deserve rights- they waive their humanity by performing acts like this.

When I was a kid my uncle visited us in Texas (surpise surpise- I lived in Texas as a kid). He had a german shephard that wasn't a family dog. I was warned to leave the dog alone, but I was stubborn and kept playing with it in the back yard. Well another dog a few houses down was let outside into the yard and the shephard took notice- it started growling and showed its teeth. I was sitting next to it- maybe less than a foot away- when I swatted it on the nose as to say , "bad dog!" All I remember after that was my parents speeding me to the hospital with my mom holding my face against a blanket for the blood. I spent, I think, a couple weeks in the hospital and had minor plastic surgery on my upper lip and lower chin. I wasn't completely mauled and it could have been worse, but I do still have a scar on my upper lip (no I don't have a hare lip).

Well here's my point- that dog was put down. A dog is just an innocent animal- it doesn't know any better. However, a human being does. So when a person conciously decides they're gonna rape some women and strangle her, or stab a bunch of people for the fuck of it, it makes my blood boil seeing how we handle this "human junk".

I watched a whole series of shows on the learning channel I believe on prisons in the U.S. Some of these maximum security prisons- god damn rediculous. The inmates sometimes smear feces all over there cells, throw piss at the guards, trying to make weapons to kill each other and sometimes even the guards. They had this one guy that had to put on a padded helmet before they took him out of his cell, because he would headbutt the guards in the face. Bullshit. They're in prison for some of the most heinous shit and they are still acting like animals. Just put'em to sleep, we do it to innocent animals every day, so what's the problem?

Well sorry for the rant. But if people wanna be animals then what's wrong with treating them like animals? I don't wanna hear the "because we're better than that" That's flawed reasoning. People who say that have either never been victimized, maybe a little crazy themselves, or don't relate to what it would be like to be stabbed to death with a kitchen knife. I'm not saying torture people, I'm just saying put them to sleep. And I'm sorry cause I know some people hate controversy, but sometimes you have to live in reality. Or not.

[kiania]

Urgh. As much as I'm an advocator of free will, and human rights, this subject still annoys me as well. I'm as much interested in animal rights (of which there are few it seems).

There is only one distinction. The abilty to be helped. Humans (some, not all) can want to be helped. They can be rehabilitated, and realise a wrong. Animals (on the whole), are less able to be rehabilitated, or realise right from wrong (although some can be trained, it is unlikely to prove effective in large scale practice). However, for the humans that see actions such as the one mentioned, other acts of violence (up to murder), or sex offenses, as 'fun', or for purely self gratification (to make themselves content), then I agree, that is no more than barbaric (even the supposedly 'less intelligent' animals don't do this).

Rehabilitation, yes. However capital punishment would help keep the creeps, freaks and weirdo's out of society's gene pool.

[Gillan]

I do not have a problem with capital punishment as the general rule for crimes of murder, rape, kidnapping, etc. However, my main problem with it is the manner in which it has been used as a tool of political, religious, and race persecution here in our country and to a worse degree in others.

I do not think our penal system should soley be about rehabilitation. Truly, some criminals are capable of being rehabilitated and can rejoin society. Moreover, when one pays "their debt" to society I think they should be allowed to rejoin us. However, I think the law also has a retributivist aspect to it - punishment.

The death penalty, in the United States, is a legitimate form of penalty - those who advocate that it isn't should take a closer look at the Constitution; specifically the section where it lays out the death penalty in at least one type of case.

I think our country is currently swinging back towards are more retribution manner of dealing with criminals and away from the utilitarian/rehabilitation manner.

[Rosuav]

Originally posted by Savaric
They're in prison for some of the most heinous shit and they are still acting like animals. Just put'em to sleep, we do it to innocent animals every day, so what's the problem?

You can't just "put people to sleep" randomly. But if they commit crimes while in jail, there should be penalties - and for serious crimes, death should be sentenceable. If someone is in jail for theft (not itself a capital offense) and they murder a cellmate or guard (in my opinion there's no difference - murdering a criminal is still murder), they should be tried for the crime and, if found guilty, sentenced to something harsher than they are presently serving.

Death sentences work out cheaper than long prison stays anyway. Which would you (as a taxpayer) prefer to pay for? A bullet/lethal injection/gas/electricity etc? Or a couple of decades of keeping someone on the dole, effectively? Inmates get a place to live (and land for prisons doesn't come free), food, water, facilities, and a whole lot of attendants (sure, the inmates don't want the guards, but they're there anyway and have to be paid). With the unrepentant crims who have no desire to change, and no interest in making reparations to society, there ought to be a Death Row, where they are kept only as long as it takes to organize their execution. (NOTE: There should be some delay. The slow wheels of bureaucracy will usually ensure this anyway, but there should always be a bit of time between sentence and execution, to allow for royal/presidential pardons, appeals, etc. Nobody should ever be brought in to trial at noon, sentenced at 12:30, and buried at 1:00.)