The Death Penalty and Justice
So lately there has been all this bullshit about granting Tookie Williams clemency because since he has been in prison he has turned his life around.
What a crock.
What else are you going to do in prison sitting on death row besides lift weights, exhaust your appeals, suck up taxpayer monies,and find God?
Sorry, call me insensitive, but I don't have much faith in people who have ANY kind of life-change AFTER they got caught for something. If Tookie Williams wasn't arrested and put in Jail 26 years ago, he'd have spent the remaining years of his life killing and doing all the things that gangs do. Finding redemption when you've been sitting in jail with NOTHING to do but think about ways to keep yourself from being executed does not represent a high degree of character. I'm skeptical of anyone who's motivation to do good was a result of being caught. If Tookie Williams had woken up 28 years ago, before the crimes he was arrested and convicted of had taken place and decided to change his life of his own free will, not because he was in jail, just because he had an epiphany. THAT demonstrates character.
But it raises a bigger question for me. Am I for the death penalty... No... I don't think I am. I don't think the death penalty serves 'justice'. I don't think anyone benefits from putting someone to death.
Here's my theory:
When you commit a crime... You don't owe a debt to society. You owe a debt TO YOUR VICTIMS.
No victim... No crime...
So when you steal from someone and are caught. You owe reparitions to the person you stole from. A court assigns a dollar value that you owe a victim (for the cost of their loss including monies to compensate for stress etc) You go to jail... A different kind of jail. A 'forced labor' prison where you work to pay off 2 things.. You work to pay off the cost of 'jailing' yourself and you work to pay reparitions to your victim. You don't get out of jail until BOTH are paid off.
Prison structure would be different. There would be some private enterprise integration to provide compensation based tasks for prisoners to do. Perhaps its diging ditches. Perhaps its stamping out license plates. Perhaps its some type of assebly. But prisoners would be forced to work. No work... No food... If they don't pay the assigned reparition to their victim. They stay in jail until they get motivated to do the work.
There would need to be special cases for certain types of crimes (again, judges would determine).. A person who is a threat to society (a serial killer who you would never want released) would have to work the rest of their life to pay reparitions to their victims families. Of course reparitions would be so high that they could never earn enough to do so... So in order to motivate them to work to pay what reparitions they could, they would again, not be fed unless they worked. Prisoners wouldn't be tortured or anything. Everything would be a choice for them. They work, they eat.. They don't work, they don't eat. They don't work, they get the heat shut off in their cell, or whatever.
Victims would get reparitions. Criminals who wanted to could motivate themselves to work TONS of hours and pay back their reparitions faster. You would make inmates who had a realistic shot of getting out accountable... And prisoners who we would not want to ever get out would not be a burden on society. They wouldn't be 'paying their debt to society' by making us law-abiding citizens pay taxes to feed and house them while they do nothing. They would be living a HARD life in prison paying to stay alive and feed themselves and paying to repay their victims. Believe me, prison would be a REAL deterent to your low-level criminals. (robbery, theft, etc)
FHL
What a crock.
What else are you going to do in prison sitting on death row besides lift weights, exhaust your appeals, suck up taxpayer monies,and find God?
Sorry, call me insensitive, but I don't have much faith in people who have ANY kind of life-change AFTER they got caught for something. If Tookie Williams wasn't arrested and put in Jail 26 years ago, he'd have spent the remaining years of his life killing and doing all the things that gangs do. Finding redemption when you've been sitting in jail with NOTHING to do but think about ways to keep yourself from being executed does not represent a high degree of character. I'm skeptical of anyone who's motivation to do good was a result of being caught. If Tookie Williams had woken up 28 years ago, before the crimes he was arrested and convicted of had taken place and decided to change his life of his own free will, not because he was in jail, just because he had an epiphany. THAT demonstrates character.
But it raises a bigger question for me. Am I for the death penalty... No... I don't think I am. I don't think the death penalty serves 'justice'. I don't think anyone benefits from putting someone to death.
Here's my theory:
When you commit a crime... You don't owe a debt to society. You owe a debt TO YOUR VICTIMS.
No victim... No crime...
So when you steal from someone and are caught. You owe reparitions to the person you stole from. A court assigns a dollar value that you owe a victim (for the cost of their loss including monies to compensate for stress etc) You go to jail... A different kind of jail. A 'forced labor' prison where you work to pay off 2 things.. You work to pay off the cost of 'jailing' yourself and you work to pay reparitions to your victim. You don't get out of jail until BOTH are paid off.
Prison structure would be different. There would be some private enterprise integration to provide compensation based tasks for prisoners to do. Perhaps its diging ditches. Perhaps its stamping out license plates. Perhaps its some type of assebly. But prisoners would be forced to work. No work... No food... If they don't pay the assigned reparition to their victim. They stay in jail until they get motivated to do the work.
There would need to be special cases for certain types of crimes (again, judges would determine).. A person who is a threat to society (a serial killer who you would never want released) would have to work the rest of their life to pay reparitions to their victims families. Of course reparitions would be so high that they could never earn enough to do so... So in order to motivate them to work to pay what reparitions they could, they would again, not be fed unless they worked. Prisoners wouldn't be tortured or anything. Everything would be a choice for them. They work, they eat.. They don't work, they don't eat. They don't work, they get the heat shut off in their cell, or whatever.
Victims would get reparitions. Criminals who wanted to could motivate themselves to work TONS of hours and pay back their reparitions faster. You would make inmates who had a realistic shot of getting out accountable... And prisoners who we would not want to ever get out would not be a burden on society. They wouldn't be 'paying their debt to society' by making us law-abiding citizens pay taxes to feed and house them while they do nothing. They would be living a HARD life in prison paying to stay alive and feed themselves and paying to repay their victims. Believe me, prison would be a REAL deterent to your low-level criminals. (robbery, theft, etc)
FHL
posted by N1K | 12:46 PM
2 Comments:
Concise, well written and sensible. You've got some good ideas, which is why you'll never succeed in politics.
Right on N1K. The victim's rights are subordinate, it is bull shit. Common sense is lost, legal loop holes and wranglings wins all. Remember, "if the glove don't fit you must aquit!" I wonder how hell is going for ol' Johnnie?
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