This is a comment by Gustavas on the post “Death Penalty Now“.
“I’m going to have to agree here, honestly. I’m a future teacher, a (hopefully) continuing parent, and if I can, a future parent … but I can’t use the legal system to kill off people. Not like this.
“I oppose the death penalty full-stop. I also believe in rehabilitation. Don’t worry about me thinking that it’s working in America; but to me, it’s because that’s not how our system is designed. It’s incapable of this task because it simply punishes people who break the law, and when they’re in jail, free them when they display promising behaviour. There is a LOT more to rehabilitation … it doesn’t work like this, and we can’t make it work.
“Don’t get me wrong, I would want to beat the guilty party of someone who’s abused a child in my life to whatever Hells may or may not exist. If I witness a child being raped or abused, there will be SOME mercy (because the child will be nearby when I deliver justice). But that doesn’t mean I should.
“I would like to see the death penalty removed across all states. I would like to see the legal system take a more practical approach to the law (no more jailing people who broke the law, but in context were being good citizens). And if it came to someone needing to be punished or worked with, I would like to see a reformative jail, where the people are removed from society and people make an earnest attempt at helping them help themselves become better people. It’d be like a drug abuse rehabilitation centre, but without the fancy tennis courts and the like. People get together and discuss what’s troubling them. They support each other as they cope with having done something horrible and trying to work past it.
“Should anyone be released completely back in to society, I think that they should be very closely monitored, like people who are under house arrest are. If we want a better society, we have to MAKE one.
“Some people won’t want to improve themselves. That’s fine. Some people are too dangerous. That’s fine. We could send them to a more serious penitentiary. It’d be their choice (generally). They can live out their days. And there’s no going back to society for good behaviour, although perhaps they could enroll in a special programme away from society where they can do something with their lives. It’s an idea in-progress, so it’s not fully thought out yet.
“Another nice thing would be if the Court were to somehow reimburse someone if they were wrongly accused. If someone gets locked away for 20 years for something they didn’t do, I don’t think that simply letting them out is good enough. Economic reimbursement isn’t sufficient or appropriate, I don’t think. But it would be the Court’s fault, at least in part, and they should make amends.”
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Photo credit: Flickr / Woody H1
Well said. I also think that for serious crimes criminals should have the option of a new identity. I’ve read way too many stories about ex-cons being hunted down by the rag trade and forced out of their communities because there was a slow news day. If we say that someone has paid their debt to society then we should mean it, and actually give them a chance to move on and live their lives with a blank slate.