Hear That Sound? It's Feces Hitting the Fan.

[kandrathe]

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Of course, the other solution is not so gentle or humane. Bring back prison islands. Have prisoners grow their own food and manufacture all their own goods. No work = no eat. By the sweat of their brow they can earn their own bread.
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I think the world is too small for that now. It's too easy to find the way to spring Lex Luther from Devil's Island.

Let's review societies response to the murderer. First, justice needs to be delivered comensurate with the crime. Not merely for deterence, but to bring a reconciliation for the survivors. Someone getting away with murder, or getting a pat on the wrist is bad for moral. Everyone begins to measure their own lifes value to the society by the penalty for taking anothers life away. This is why, for thousands of years the penalty for intentional murder has been death (Code of Hammarabi). Next, removal of the offender from the society to prevent further harm to the society. If Devils Island is a paradise, then it does not seem like much of a punishment. And finally, a more modern humanitarian (and more expensive) approach to justice introduced rehabilitation during incarceration, to transform the offender into a better citizen upon release. I think most of us would agree it is a noble goal, and that our system has mostly failed with rehabilitation. In fact, quite the opposite is most likely true. If a person spends time in prison they will more likely emerge as a worse threat to the society. Also, our system is heavily weighted against identifying and treating mental illness which manifests itself as criminal behavior. Too often the anti-social masquerade as mentally ill, causing prosecutors, judges and juries to be sceptical of real illness.