One of the things we need to remember is what made our country great. Equality under the law, whether it feels good or not. Frontier justice in its haste makes many mistakes. I have no issue with capitol punishment and have personally thought of some rather inventive punishments/deaths for offenders but they were flights of fancy not suitable for a civilized nation with respect for DUE process. Due process, not appeals ad infinitum, ad naseum. In cases where there is good evidence, like for example DNA, appeals based on loopholes and technicalities should be cut short.
I wouldn't protest too long or loud if life imprisonment, absolutely without consideration for parole, were used in cases where a conviction was reasonable but you can't be really really sure and these following conditions were met: 1. The imprisonment is punishment not a mandatory attendance condo with all the comforts of a middle class home. 2. No outside contact 3. must grow own food and make own clothes or work in prison industry to pay own keep as much as possible. 3. Strict but fair treatment in the administration of no work-no eat. 4. Discipline and citizenship based reward system, e.g. if you do what you are told and don't mess up you qualify for desert with dinner and "approved" leisure reading, hobby activities, "approved" movies. Hard cases get the nutrition required for health, and the opportunity to see what the "behavers" get that they themselves do without.
Imprisonment for henious crimes should be strict punishment but inmates should have a right to die without undue interference should they prefer to use a suicide booth (in my opinion, some might disagree.)
Keep in perspective why we have criminal justice systems with associated penal systems. Society, civilization or however you prefer to think of us in the collective, has to do that which is neccessary to maintain its existence or become extinct. We the people must do what is required to maintain order or civilization breaks down and things get really messy. Laws are to regulate society and those that transgress against those laws attack the fabric of our society. Laws without enforcement DO NOT WORK. When a member of society constitutes a clear and present danger to that society, it is then that society's mandate to do whatever is required to remove that danger. In less extreme cases, fines, community service, a weekend in county jail, or whatever may suffice to convince the bad actor to straighten up. Not being able to perfectly divine motivations and liklihood of serious crimes being repeated, societies take drastic measures like capitol punishment with its low recitivism rate to ensure their safety. Substitution of life without parole at low cost to the taxpayers isn't too bad an alternative if it permanently removes the bad actors from society, thereby helping to protect innocents from victimization. I'd rather see bad guys going away permanently that turning them loose because of all the political differences between different factions of liberals and conservatives that tends to paralyze us when faced with a decision regarding capitol punishment.
It is a sad commentary on our society and times but the need for incarcerating bad actors is on the increase nationwide and I for one do not want yet another welfare class to support. Especially to support while they briefly attend Prison University to hone their skills while being tutored by more skilled criminals and then are returned to our society to prey more effectively and violently on us.
Is incarceration, however strict, a deterent for sex offenders. Most informed sources say no. Many say those folks literally cannot resist their urges. This leaves a rational society only two choices of action for protecting its members: 1. execution ot the criminal, or 2. otherwise remove them from society.
Would public torture deter sex offenders? Most authorities say no, as those whacko folks aren't guided by our motivations. So do we want to do what feels good, or what works? I can get really hot when "bad" things happen to innocent victims but from a logical point of view removing these folks from society is what will protect us from their predation. All that is left to decide is whether that removal is by execution or incarceration. My only concern (and I haven't worked out exactly how I feel or think our society should act) is that these are human beings, defective ones but human nevertheless and I'm not sure I feel comfortable starting down the slipery slope of deciding what constitutes the criteria for applying capitol punishment to defective folks. (****** thought he knew who to elliminate, dwarves, homos, jews, Gypsies, mentally ill, mentally deficient, sex offenders, and so on.) Is a simple conviction sufficient or would only certain levels of proof warrant capitol punishment. Arguing this delays progress. Locking 'em up and throwing away the key protects us and with a no-work-no-eat prison system won't bankrupt us. We waste a lot of time and energy debating capitol punishment when the real requirement is their permanent separation from society.
Let me state THIS clearly for the record: I would vote for laws to permanently incarcerate but not neccessarily execute sex offenders who would otherwise not be subject to capitol punishment due to the less serious nature of their crimes. Once identified, it shouldn't be neccessary to ID them when they move to a different neighborhood because I would want to see only one move, to a place of permanent confinement.
Thank you for your indulgence with this post.
Patrick
