What is the worst form of punishment? in Off Topic

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#20 Sep 22 2011, 12:53 pm
I picked torture because you can be kept alive for a long time while you continually suffer excruciating pain. Not to mention the many forms of torture, so your body can never truly adapt to the pain in one select area...it would suck, bottom line.

I don't feel like answering the political question, not in the mood for a political debate XD. My day is eh so far by the way, how is your day Masterdarwin88?
#21 Sep 22 2011, 12:53 pm
Anyone found guilty of committing any violent felony offense currently punishable by 10 years or more in prison or resulting in the death of a human being should be sold into slavery for life.

Cut down on prison costs, give half the money to any family they have(It's a hell of a lot more than they would've gotten if you tossed them in jail), and use the rest to pay for the people who haven't completely screwed up and are stuck in jail on more minor crimes.
#22 Sep 22 2011, 12:55 pm
I am tired. I'm going to finish this essay before hitting the sac' for a couple of hours.
#23 Sep 22 2011, 12:56 pm
As I said before, just because America is better than other countries doesn't make it a good country. It just means it's the lesser of all the crap countries.

As for jail, the "justice" system will always be flawed. I'm not for death penalty or anything, but prison is simply the only way that works. It's not perfect, but when you try and think of better ways to do it, they are always even worse than the system we have now. Once again, it boils down to the lesser of all the crap systems created to deal with criminals. Prison may not be good, but it's better than a lot of the other options. If we don't lock criminals away, they'll keep committing crimes. It's not like we can just sit them down, hold their hand, and make them promise to never do anything wrong again. That doesn't work.

But at the same time, prison doesn't improve criminals either. It just prevents them from causing trouble for a certain amount of time, then they are let back out to do the same crap all over again. So it's a solution but a very ineffective one.

Besides, the problem isn't prison, it's the people who end up there. Maybe if people start raising their children correctly, they won't grow up to become murderers and robbers. It's as simple as that.
#24 Sep 22 2011, 12:57 pm
Im not sure how things work in the US but if a minor of age 14 kills a person for no apparent reason in my country they'd be back on the street before age 30 most likely.thereafter they'd probably have no problem killing again.

In this day and age guilt is becoming extinct as everything becomes more and more competitive.
#25 Sep 22 2011, 1:03 pm
I'm suprised that no one picked Death Row yet.
#26 Sep 22 2011, 1:03 pm
I just picked it.

For the lulz.
#27 Sep 22 2011, 1:34 pm
Put on an island, alone.
#28 Sep 22 2011, 1:41 pm
There aren't enough islands for that. And they could escape. I do not agree with putting them into slavery or isolation... or even killing. Everyone, even the lowest scum that's snorting piss and humping every dude in sight, has a heart. Maybe not the mentally unfit, but most everyone.
#29 Sep 22 2011, 1:58 pm
Other, Justin Beiber is a great way to punish anyone 20+
#30 Sep 22 2011, 3:02 pm
My opinion? Legalize it. Legalize the practice of being an Ent.
#31 Sep 22 2011, 4:01 pm
I agree with everything here, except ill take it a step further. Prison should be about rehabilitation, not solely punishment. Punishing criminals may ease the mind of the violated, and for a while, may actually work to improve the prisoner, but after a time instead of just keeping a prisoner locked up we should be teaching them how to rejoin society. Prison makes money, so these days the goal of the prisons is not to help inmates become better people, but to make sure they come back to earn more money.
#32 Sep 22 2011, 4:54 pm
Boxcar wrote:
I agree with everything here, except ill take it a step further. Prison should be about rehabilitation, not solely punishment.

Actually, studies have shown that rehabilitation doesn't help much with reducing recidivism. Also, rehabilitation programs cost money, and I am sure many are not interested in raising their taxes to help support a con.

Punishing criminals may ease the mind of the violated, and for a while, may actually work to improve the prisoner, but after a time instead of just keeping a prisoner locked up we should be teaching them how to rejoin society.

The only problem is that most business are not interested in hiring a person with a felony and/or certain misdemeanors. Therefore, ex-cons are forced into a sub-par job in a society full of crime.

Prison makes money, so these days the goal of the prisons is not to help inmates become better people, but to make sure they come back to earn more money.

Prisons spend more money than they make. There is a reason why our prisons are overcrowded.
#33 Sep 22 2011, 6:25 pm
Private prisons make a profit, not the state run ones.Although there is legislation in the works that will make inmates practically slaves to corporations while imprisoned. Our prisons are overcrowded because of ridiculous drug laws, which actually create more hardened criminals.

And If you want to argue receptivity, look at Sweden's prison system. They rehabilitate their inmates and their crime rate is a fraction of ours. That may be of course in part due to socioeconomic reasons as well, but I have yet to see any studies outside of the U.S saying rehabilitation doesn't work.
#34 Sep 22 2011, 6:36 pm
Boxcar wrote:
And If you want to argue receptivity, look at Sweden's prison system. They rehabilitate their inmates and their crime rate is a fraction of ours. That may be of course in part due to socioeconomic reasons as well, but I have yet to see any studies outside of the U.S saying rehabilitation doesn't work.

My Criminal Justice classes generally stick with discussing USA's corrections system, so I have no knowledge of Sweden's system.

But it is obvious that our current rehabilitation method(s) are ineffective as they are costly and do not reduce recidivism much, if at all. I am sure if push came to shove, they could slowly get this problem corrected. But I remember a poll asking if Americans were pro or anti rehabilitation in the prison system, and the results showed that the majority of American citizens were anti-rehabilitation and preferred punishment. So what politician would go against the majority and claim that using tax payer's money COULD help "fix" criminals? You'd see the end of that person's chances of ever being elected.

With recidivism, there are many other factors causing it too. As I said, cons have trouble finding jobs in good communities, ex-cons learn better techniques while incarcerated, and sometimes the pleasure of the crime outweighs the punishments of being caught.
#35 Sep 22 2011, 6:44 pm
I think that's also a problem in the United States. We are so hard on "criminals". Once someone is incarcerated the American people essentially screw themselves by making it extremely difficult for the ex-con to re-enter society. They therefore push him back to the only lifestyle they know how to survive on. They then punish him for said crimes that they pushed them to in the first place. Until this cycle fueled by bigotry is ended, rehabilitation will not be as effective. I'm not saying no punishment should be given out, just that we should remember nobody is perfect, and it is completely possible for someone to turn their life around.
#36 Sep 22 2011, 7:01 pm
Boxcar wrote:
I think that's also a problem in the United States. We are so hard on "criminals". Once someone is incarcerated the American people essentially screw themselves by making it extremely difficult for the ex-con to re-enter society. They therefore push him back to the only lifestyle they know how to survive on. They then punish him for said crimes that they pushed them to in the first place. Until this cycle fueled by bigotry is ended, rehabilitation will not be as effective. I'm not saying no punishment should be given out, just that we should remember nobody is perfect, and it is completely possible for someone to turn their life around.

It truly is a cycle: We are too scared to lean off on punishment because we see that the recidivism rates are high, and these criminals will only cause more trouble because the pleasure would out weigh the punishment; but the rates may be high because we are too tough on crime.

Though, it always depends on what that criminal was convicted of. If you were convicted with a crime such as robbery, theft, burglary, a violent assault, or even drug possession, I and many others wouldn't feel safe with you working in my business or around children. Therefore, that criminal will be tossed into a tough situation when they re-enter society. It is unfortunate but it was a choice made by that criminal. I feel that if we actually had criminal justice courses in high school explaining that stunts such as destroying school property is a felony, then we'd see a slight decrease in crime. I do not know about you, but while I lived in a dorm, so many people were doing ignorant things that would had resulted in a fairly stiff punishment if caught.
#37 Sep 22 2011, 7:13 pm
Sure, more knowledge about law enforcement would be a nice step in prevention. You'd be surprised the dumb theories about laws I hear from people concerning what is legal and what is not. Hell, most of byond doesn't even understand how copyright laws work. But its not just law enforcement ignorance, its widespread into every subject that's not jersey shore or getting high. Do you know that a girl asked me what the word morality meant in my sociology class yesterday? Its pathetic.
#38 Sep 22 2011, 8:22 pm
I think they do it out of rebellion rather than ignorance. Teenagers don't want you telling them they can't do something especially when that something makes them look cool in front of their peers. They know spraying graffiti on the school is vandalism, they know weed can land them in jail, they know joyriding is dangerous. You could tell them all day what right and wrong is, but at the end of the day, they're going to make decisions based on how they were raised. The lack of a quality upbringing is why we have criminals, not ignorance of the law.

Just consider how many times you've seen someone do one of the above in the presence of a police officer or other authority figure ( parent, teacher, principal etc. ). They don't light up a blunt while a cop is staring at them and they write gang graffiti on the school when the "coast is clear". That's evidence that they know what they're doing is wrong otherwise they would do it in a blatant fashion as opposed to a sneaky one.
#39 Sep 23 2011, 12:08 pm
tl;dr
Surprise butt-rape.
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