should it be legal to escape prison?

[© tweed]

a 'yes' vote does not mean that the state should make no attempt to recapture escaped prisoners, but rather, that no further punishments should be levied

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

It is essentially impossible to escape prison without any sort of damage to property (and most likely without any injury to other people in the process as well.)

[Kaine for Senate '18]

No, of course not.

[Lunar]

What's the rational for this?

I mean, it's illegal to flee a police officer when you're not a prisoner and haven't done anything wrong...

[© tweed]

What's the rational for this?

I mean, it's illegal to flee a police officer when you're not a prisoner and haven't done anything wrong...

philosophy of the law - that prisoners should be expected to want to try to escape from prison

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What's the rational for this?

I mean, it's illegal to flee a police officer when you're not a prisoner and haven't done anything wrong...

philosophy of the law - that prisoners should be expected to want to try to escape from prison

That's hardly a philosophy of the law. Most people would be expected to prefer to take something for free than buy it or ignore traffic laws when it inconveniences them as well.

[Lunar]

What's the rational for this?

I mean, it's illegal to flee a police officer when you're not a prisoner and haven't done anything wrong...

philosophy of the law - that prisoners should be expected to want to try to escape from prison

murderers should also be expected to want to murder and thieves should be expected to steal


I'm still confused.  Isn't law specifically designed to discourage certain acts?  Isn't that the essential premise?

[© tweed]

all of the examples you (plural you) have given are examples of peoples 'on the outside'.  laws are intended to discourage certain activities, yes, but once someone has committed such an egregious offense against said law, the rules are altered; criminals do not have the same rights/protections from the law that free peoples do.  in fact, they hardly have any.  why should they be expected to respect an institution that incarcerated them in the first place?


(not sure if I agree with any of this, but certain countries do.  look south)

[Alcon]

It is essentially impossible to escape prison without any sort of damage to property (and most likely without any injury to other people in the process as well.)

How about community custody?

[Verily]

all of the examples you (plural you) have given are examples of peoples 'on the outside'.  laws are intended to discourage certain activities, yes, but once someone has committed such an egregious offense against said law, the rules are altered; criminals do not have the same rights/protections from the law that free peoples do.  in fact, they hardly have any.  why should they be expected to respect an institution that incarcerated them in the first place?


(not sure if I agree with any of this, but certain countries do.  look south)

The purpose of imprisonment is (or should be) to rehabilitate them to respect that institution in the future, and therefore to obey the laws. Thus, any deviation from respect of the institution of the law must be discouraged in some fashion, not merely tolerated. I'm not sure it should lengthen their sentences, precisely, but it should make parole more difficult and then, after a second violation, impossible to obtain.

Obviously, this doesn't apply to those whom the law has deemed to be permanently incarcerated without parole in any case. Whether this is even the proper usage of incarceration is a different discussion, but at the least there isn't any sort of punishment which could be added to their sentence in any case, and since they will never be expected to be released, there's no reason to encourage them to respect the law.

But I don't think such people (those imprisoned for life without parole) are punished further at the moment for escape attempts anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[© tweed]

But I don't think such people (those imprisoned for life without parole) are punished further at the moment for escape attempts anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong.

they could be put in solitary confinement or have their toilet paper privileges taken away or whatever prisons do

[Eraserhead]

The punishment for escaping or trying to escape prison should be a cop grabbing you by the arm and saying "nice try, friend".

[MaxQue]

That should be a crime and lenthen the jail time. An escape is a proof than you are able to accept the society rules and than you should stay in jail.

[Smid]

This post makes me think of Les Miserables - where his original sentence was five years, but he served an additional 14 for attempts at escaping.

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Nonetheless, I think there needs to be some form of punishment to discourage criminals from trying it.

[The Mikado]

This post makes me think of Les Miserables - where his original sentence was five years, but he served an additional 14 for attempts at escaping.

You stole my answer!   

[k-onmmunist]

No... if we allowed it, then they'd be little risk in escaping which means they'd do it more, which puts innocents at risk.