Re: never a day passes (death penalty)

From: John K Clark (jonkc@att.net)
Date: Fri Nov 29 2002 - 09:29:02 MST


"Eugen Leitl" <eugen@leitl.org> Wrote:

>no premature release, introduce a life sentence with a literal
>meaning.

A no premature release policy would make it far more difficult to keep
order in a prison, and by that bland sounding phrase I mean it would be
very hard to keep them from killing each other. With no death penalty
there is no stick and with no hope of parole there is no carrot.

>>Me:
>>They escape and murder more people.

> So you need better methods of confinement.

If you can snap you fingers and conjure up a practical way to confine two
million people with zero chance of any of them ever escaping then why not do
the job properly and conjure up a law enforcement system that was so good it
would always stop someone before they committed a murder, then the entire
death penalty issue becomes moot. Only trouble is that conjuring is hard.

>If you're sealed in a cell, and only communicate via video not too
>many ways to escape exist. [...] sealed cell with audio/video I/O.
>How do you claw your way from a sealed stainless box with
>your bare hands?

I don't think you're serious, I hope not. Not only would it be enormously
expensive but if they were not insane when they went into the box they
soon would be. I thought the entire objection to the death penalty was that
it was supposed to be inhumane, so much for the moral high ground.

> Would you rather spend 10 years in prison, or ride the lightning?

If you mean 10 years inside a stainless steel cube that has been welded shut
then I'll take the lightning please.

     John K Clark jonkc@att.net



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