From: Mike Linksvayer (ml@justintime.com)
Date: Wed Mar 03 1999 - 17:55:09 MST
Delvieron@aol.com wrote:
> Premise: Imprisonment as a consequence of crime is a failed policy.
>
> I've been trying to come up with better alternatives for criminal penalties,
> but have not had much luck in developing a substantial improvement over the
> status quo. Seems to me that >H are a pretty smart bunch, so maybe a little
> brainstorming might dig up some good solutions.
Three popular alternatives to imprisonment are:
* community service
* home detention (see http://homedetention.com for example)
* fines/restitution
I think chemical castration is somewhat less popular, and
only applies to sex offenders. A novel punishment for
chronic abusers of the opposite sex: a sex change
operation.
Popular in some parts:
* caning or other non-permanent physical punishment
* permanent physical punishment (e.g., chop of a hand)
* tattoo 'POOR IMPULSE CONTROL' and the like on offenders'
foreheads :)
Swift execution is also popular in some parts. The death
penalty as used in some U.S. states involves much more
imprisonment than death.
The most straightforward and effective reform would of course
be to legalize drugs. People who buy, produce, sell, or use
drugs shouldn't be penalized at all, let alone imprisoned.
If we accept that some people must be imprisoned...
* To get the 'invisible hand' working on the problem, make payments
to private prison operators partially contingent on recidivism
rates for prisoners released from the facility in question.
* We may want to look closely at claims that some make about
meditation decreasing violence in prisons and improving
rehabilitation. See for example http://www.dhamma.org/prisons.htm
and http://www.natural-law.org/98_platform/98_platform_crime.html.
* Make prison more of a 'punishment' -- remove all televisions
and radios and feed them a vegan diet (these would make
prison more palatable for me, but probably not for most
actual prisoners).
-- See From: and Organization: above. Call +1 415 553 6408 for assistance.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:03:14 MST