Are you against LIFE in prison penalty?

[Bodonius]

I used to be against life in prison and death penalty.
Im still against death penalty in general even for people like Saddam Hussein, he probably knew alot of things we could benefit from.

What life in prison mean can differ, they can be forced to work and pay their debt to society or it can be a nice place better then most people have. Someone that have done horrible crimes will probably never really fit in society. What to do with them? Use them for cheap work, send them of to a island or kill them, in society they shouldnt be.

Society change, people rarely do. We dont want killers walking around. And this time it will be killers with experience from prison, not the softer kind they where before.

[Kathandira]

Yeah, I am speaking specifically about life in prison with NO possibility of ever getting out AND, AND as we go forward someone also pointed out if people live say 100s of years then what.

How much time is enough to simply rot, and even to at what point does it become cruel and unusual maybe even worse than death especially if we are talking almost a century.

I'm ok with a Life Sentence being 30 years even in the worst cases. In the US, people can receive multiple life sentences if there is more than 1 crime committed. So essentially, someone could serve literal 'Life' if what they did was horrible enough. You could serve your sentences concurrently, or consecutively. If consecutive, you could spend 60, 90, 120 years in prison.

[Egomaniac]

hence why i said rehabilitation should be secondary... getting them off the streets should be the main goal...

"getting them off the streets" is already accomplished by sending them to prison.

Hence the main goal of prison should be rehabilitation. So that when the person is released they are less likely to offend again.

- - - Updated - - -

Society change, people rarely do. We dont want killers walking around. And this time it will be killers with experience from prison, not the softer kind they where before.

When people are coming out of prison worse than they were when they went in...than there is something wrong with the prison system.

[Zarc]

Seems like the OP should add the caveat of (without parole) in the title of the thread.

On that note, I am in favor of life in prison as a penalty.

However, I am also in favor of parole, of redemption, and of relieving the taxpayer the burden of incarcerating an old man who doesn't pose any reasonable threat to anyone.

In Sweden we have life in prison as a penalty, which means that you are sentenced to prison with no time limit attached, so the person do not know how long he or she will remain in prison, and can theoretically remain in prison for life. However, the statistical average time somebody sentenced to life in prison actually remains imprisoned is 16 years, after which the person - on average - is released on parole for another 9 years - again, on average - before the person's sentence is commuted provided he didn't stray from a lawful life for those 9 years. I think this is a good, but voices calling for harsher punishments are loud in this part of the world these days.

[Moadar]

"getting them off the streets" is already accomplished by sending them to prison.

Hence the main goal of prison should be rehabilitation. So that when the person is released they are less likely to offend again.

- - - Updated - - -



When people are coming out of prison worse than they were when they went in...than there is something wrong with the prison system.

Ya its from mingling with other scumbags. 24 hour isolation will solve all that. Not only will they not mingle but they will have a lot of time contemplate their crimes.

[Egomaniac]

Ya its from mingling with other scumbags. 24 hour isolation will solve all that. Not only will they not mingle but they will have a lot of time contemplate their crimes.

Yes, I'm sure that will have a very positive effect on their socialization issues...

[Moadar]

Yes, I'm sure that will have a very positive effect on their socialization issues...

If they are smart it will incentive enough to not come back, if not they were coming back no matter what.

[Egomaniac]

If they are smart it will incentive enough to not come back, if not they were coming back no matter what.

treating prisoners like animals and then expecting them to act like humans when they are released...

[Forogil]

Fun fact: Each person on death row costs the US penal system more than they would if they were just put in prison for life.
https://deathpenalty.org/facts/5-myths-death-penalty/

To me that suggests that people that are sent away for LIFE without parole are treated unfairly.

Since they don't lose their live, but only the ability to live it, society cares less whether they committed the crime or not.

Amnesty at least suggest to use the money saved to improve justice, but I think that many would just use LIFE-sentence as a cost-saving measure.

[Specialka]

If they are smart it will incentive enough to not come back, if not they were coming back no matter what.

Stats do not back up your claim.

[Queen of Hamsters]

In the case of truly "evil" (sick) people? No, I'm not. Some people cannot and will not be rehabilitated.

The goal of imprisonment however, should always be rehabilitation when possible, not sating revenge of the dumb public or making money off the prisoner. So I'm against death penalty, for-profit prison systems and life in jail on 3 strikes. Such a moronic system to have.

[Antiganon]

I'm not a fan of the taxpayer fitting the bill to keep violent offenders fed, clothes, and healthy for decades, but the alternative being the death penalty or releasing them back into the general population it's the lesser of evils.

I'd prefer we manufacture a large island in the middle of the ocean though, provide the basic infrastructure needed for modern agriculture, and have the inmates live and work there in exile without public support. Basically Australia but without displacing/slaughtering an indigenous population to set up the prison colony. That's also never going to happen.

[Pony Soldier]

I guess it depends if he admits to it or if he claims he was wrongly accused. If the person actually committed the crime and has little to no history of run ins with the law then I say give him a chance and just give him a lighter sentence depending on the severity of the crime. If he claims he was wrongly accused I believe there should be some sort of investigation if possible to figure out who was the actual suspect before imprisonment. There are too many stories of people wasting 20-30 years of their life in jail for something they didn't do.

However, if this person was arrested numerous times and given numerous chances to change (perhaps given too many chances) then he should rot in prison for the rest of his life. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

[Gamevizier]

I think mass shooters and serial killers should be executed, same thing with violent serial rapists and pedophiles who have done so multiple times. At one point sparing dangerous people and locking them up is just extra costs.

these people are dangerous beings that have opened a very dark door in their minds, What guarantees are there that they can be repurposed into productive and good people of the society?

[David1207]

No, I'm not.