Subject:
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Re: Abortion, consistent with the LP stance? (Re: From Harry Browne
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 15 Nov 2000 16:31:50 GMT
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Viewed:
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1273 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
>
> > [Criminals] should be rehabilitated on their first time in. Not after they
> > could reasonably be hardened criminals.
>
> This assumes that criminals are caught upon their first infraction. A
> criminal doesn't become "hardened" simply by spending time in the joint; a
> life of criminal activity, inside or outside of prison, will harden someone
> very effectively.
I think that most criminals are first caught during their youth. That aside,
I'm sure there are some who live long full lives of crime and never get caught.
I still suspect that if someone can be hardened, they can be softened.
> > First let's get some real compassion into our justice system. Maybe then we
> > won't need much of a penal system.
>
> I'm sensing what might be an inconsistency here; we (in general here on
> OT.debate) accept that people are ultimately responsible for their own
> actions, as long as they are unimpaired mentally.
Yes. And while I do believe that people are products of their environment, I
_think_ that we can't allow it to change our demand for personal responsibilty.
> What compassion, then, is due a so-called hardened criminal, or even
> a soft-and-cuddly criminal, who, as a a self-responsible adult, has
> nonetheless chosen to flout the legal system?
The compassion that we would have for any person who has lost their way.
> I understand what you've said elsewhere about criminals working
> somehow to satisfy their debt (to society, to an individual, etc.), but what
> about the criminal who refuses to do so? You appear to have suggested that
> the criminal will in some way "want" to work off his debt, but this seems
> unrealistically optimistic.
One who is unrepentent, is either innocent, or broken. If they are broken they
require mental therapy. Once they no longer require such therapy, they will
want to make ammends.
> How would a system accomodate and/or treat the criminal who is literally
> unrepentant and who truly has no intention of working off his debt?
Help him to see that working off his debt is the right course of action.
And I am basically advocating slavery for these people. Not because it's
right, but because I don't yet have all the answers.
Chris
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