Bali Bombers Executed

[The Big Shrek]

Can see the angle but I think it's dead set wrong. People take a simplistic and wrong view of criminal justice. Full of emotion and it focuses on blaming people rather than preventing crime occuring which is what everyone wants.

And yeah I don't particularly like how prisoners are treated.

[Punk Rooster]

And yeah I don't particularly like how prisoners are treated.

Do you like how some of those people treat the elderly? Our kids? Innocent people going about their lawful business?
Who picks up the pieces for the victims? When they can't take the kids to school & get to work, because their car was stolen during the night?

[The Big Shrek]

No I don't like how some of these prisoners have treated people Punk. My point is that treating prisoners badly doesn't actually acheive anything.

What does revenge ever acheive Punk? You still haven't told me. Do you want a system where the harm caused by criminals is magically quantified then imposed on them in an equivalent amount?

[redandblack]

I'm against capital punishment.

[Hondo]

I'm also against capital punishment. As TBS said, how can we condone killing people just because it's state sanctioned revenge.

Despite that, I have always felt that taking away someone's freedom for their entire life (and making them live with what they did) is more of a punishment than death. Martin Bryant has attempted suicide at least once. In some religions death for a cause is their preferred way to go. Plus, I think a lot of people under-estimate what it would be like to never have freedom, even if the cell has a TV and they can build a table or write a book.

There's been many cases over the years where the convicted person has been proved innocent. Although DNA testing improves the strke rate, once they're dead you can't bring them back. It also won't bring back the victims unfortunately.

Even Brian Deegan who lost his son is against capital punishment.

[Q.]

Capital punishment has actually been shown to have a brutalising effect, increasing murder rates.

True. The State sets the example for it's citizens. As it is the entity that maintains social systems, State sanctioned murder purveys the belief that murder can be an answer.

[Stumps]

Well said Quichey- i think its very sad. Noone has the right to take someone elses life

[Q.]

1) John Smith grows up a "troubled child", in & out of boy's homes, runs with the wrong people. Gets to jail, & catches up with a few mates, they look out for each other......
......Or is it because jail is the only place they can "kick a goal", & they also don't have to worry about mundane things like where they're next meal is coming from/paying the rent/keeping a job etc.

The scenario you describe entails 'making the best of a bad situation', a fundamentally human trait. There is still no way that people would rather be 'inside' than 'outside'.



Modern society sees prison as an eliminatory system. It suggests that nothing can be done about those who are locked in, thus they are purely and simply suppressed. Therein lies the conundrum. Apart from those who commit suicide, most prisoners eventually get out of jail. And at the very least they are 'riled up' as no sensible person could stand the thought of living with people who have been deliberately driven to anguish and hence made violent and enraged. So, not only does prison NOT protect you from criminals, it daily releases people who have been labelled and provoked. And if what society seeks is vengeance then we are absolutely mistaken to believe that prisons make us any safer.