Do you support or oppose the Death Penalty

[angus]

I do not believe we have had this discution before

many times.

I oppose it in all cases.  Also, like snowyguy, I generally oppose life without parole.  Unlike snowyguy, I don't like the idea of one-size-fits-all prescribed sentences.  I certainly don't agree with the concept of parole in general.  That's just setting people up for failure.

If you engage in some activity that doesn't comport with society's rules, then you are probably very antisocial.  You're a misfit.  This would imply that you need to be brainwashed into thinking like the rest of us.  I think I prefer the Navajo way.  Get drunk and run over somebody and kill them?  Probably the more fundamental problem is that you're a drunk, and that's how we should spend our resources.  Caught your wife giving a thorough sportfuck to her boss, and killed them both in a fit of rage?  Probably the fundamental problem is that you married the wrong chick.  Robbed a bank?  Probably you didn't know what else to do, since you either didn't pay attention when they were trying to teach you things in school, or because your parents didn't parent you very well.  I'm not making excuses for misfits, but generally if you are a square peg in a society of round holes, then you are really fucked up.  That doesn't mean that you should be burned to a crisp.  It may just mean that you need to be rounded a bit.  Now, maybe society doesn't have any more right to round you than you have to square the round holes, but there's the matter of majority rule.  These differences, of course, should not have occurred because they should have been dealt with before they occurred, but given that they did occur, then society either needs to exile you (put you in a capsule and send you to a Mars colony with other misfits) or try to rehabilitate you.  I think that in many cases rehabilitation is possible.  Also, we're really not yet set up for the Mars colony.  In any case, I certainly wouldn't want to be on the jury that is charged with deciding whether a man deserves to live.  Maybe I'm just weak, but the very idea just creeps me out.  Thanks, but no thanks.

[angus]

Life without parole is justice.  Prison should become labor camps too where prisoners are exposed to extremely hard work without pay in order to deter crimes.  This would save money in the private sector for the fact that work can be done for big corporations without actually having to pay a worker.  The downside is that companies benefiting from this slave labor would be the ones with political ties.  Banning corporate donations to political campaigns is part of this strategy. 

Imagine a serial killer who is forced to wake up at 4am and work until 10p.m. without a break and is never paid.  This is what they get for murdering people.  This labor camp policy would only apply to the most severe crimes.  I'm with the victims not the criminals like alot of young liberals who think they're so smart by making up creative arguments of criminal rights and thinking they're cool because they oppose establishment. 

That's honest.  I can respect it on some level.  If you don't play by the rules, we're gonna make you suffer.  That's what is says.  It says it in a more honest way than hanging.   But it is also expensive to society, and it doesn't solve the underlying problem, and that is why I don't agree with it.

It's an gut-felt response, but it doesn't help society.  In fact, it is a burden on society.  All of us taxpayers must now support, in some cases for many years, the physical existence of a citizen who might be able to support himself, if given the proper brainwashing.  I think I'm more into rehabilitation (brainwashing).  Generally, I'm not a fan of brainwashing, but if you're so confused that you can't seem to understand that it is offensive to most of us to murder or rape or pillage or burn cities and hijack planes, then maybe a little brainwashing is justified.  I've actually thought about this.  I think that rehabilitation is justified when you're likely to get in the way of my business.  A murderer, for example, is the sort of person who is likely to get in my way, which means means that I have to exterminate you (distasteful), lock you away at hard labor (satisfaction and vengeance, for sure, but a waste of resources since slave labor is inefficient), or rehabilitate.  I'd go with the latter option.