Where is 1% of the American adult population?

[--Pete]

Hi,

I did read it. But, I'm under the assumption that if you are released from prison, you've paid your debt to society.

I've heard that expression all my life. What the hell does it mean? In what sense of the word 'debt' does it make sense? If I borrow money or some object from you, I am in your debt. When I repay or return what I've borrowed, I've paid my debt to you. If you help me pour my driveway, I'm in your debt. When I help you replace your roof, I've repaid my debt to you. Now, just what is a "debt to society"? And how did he pay it off by being incarcerated as a punishment?

Sloppy terminology leads to sloppy thinking.

His recent crimes were shoplifting videos, and in my opinion, didn't warrant a 25 year prison sentence.

His prior bad acts cannot be used as evidence against him for the purpose of determining his guilt except in some specific cases (such as establishing a pattern of behavior). They can and are used to determine an appropriate sentence. He was not sentenced to 25 years in prison for shoplifting videos. He was sentence because shoplifting videos was the latest in a series of crimes going back two decades. He's not being incarcerated so much for punishment, or even rehabilitation, as he is for the protection of society. He has rejected society by his actions. He is a threat and danger to society. So, society has every right to separate him from itself.

Many murderers serve less time.

So what? This is the argument of a grade school child. "Johnny did it more than I did."

If you are looking at it from the "correctional" point of view, the prior time he spent getting "corrected" didn't really help, based on his recidivism. Perhaps, another form of intervention is required.

Again, sloppy thinking based on sloppy terminology. Correctional facilities? Give me a break. They are jails or prisons. The whole rehabilitation thing is pie-in-the-sky nonsense. It was tried. It failed. People who end up in jail because they made a mistake usually stay clean. People who decide they want to change, change.

The only way I can interpret this law, is that they don't care what you've done to commit the felony, at some point the society is tired of trying and so they want to dispose of the human garbage. The prisons have become human garbage dumps.

Yeah. Because doing something useful with those habitual criminals is frowned upon. Feeding the poor starving Great Whites along the Great Barrier Reef or using them to enrich the soil of played out land is considered poor form by many liberals (and both rational conservatives). Personally, since we can't just kill them, I would like to see a penal colony in Antarctica. But that might not be fair to the penguins.

--Pete

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Hi,

That's not how society today works.

"'Tis true, 'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true."

--Pete