I think every case should be judged on its own merits. In the case of a violent attack then yes life should mean life. For smaller crimes, however unpleasant they may be for the victim, the criminal should be educated and an attempt at rehabilitation should be made.
prisoners earning qualifications whilst serving their sentence
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I think every case should be judged on its own merits. In the case of a violent attack then yes life should mean life. For smaller crimes, however unpleasant they may be for the victim, the criminal should be educated and an attempt at rehabilitation should be made.
Would you apply that logic to this woman?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8470572.stm
Do you think she poses a significant risk to others in society such to justify the massive cost of doing so?
Which is why we have the indeterminate sentence for the most horrible crimes.
People will be released when they are fit to be, for some that will never be the case.
Spot on.
my stance on murder sentencing isn't based on potential risks to others in society, it's based on the impact of the criminal act commited, ie, the criminal denial of life to another human being. the victims permanent and irrevocal removal from the human race.
as for the case you highlighted, i'm genuinley conflicted by it. i used to have an older brother who was a drug addict, he'd been an addict pretty much his entire adult life, heroin, smack,billy, you name it he snorted/dropped/smoked/injected it. over the course of his addiction he'd OD'd umpteen times & got away with it. until the summer of 2001 when he wound up in the ICU of the QMC in a coma. six weeks later my father took the decision to turn off his life support. so, i can empathise with the situation the woman found herself in, but with out knowing the medical facts of her sons condition, i can't condone her actions.
Then I would be too biased to give a fair opinion. If I knew the victim then I wouldn't care what job they did, I would still hate them regardless if they were a personnel trainer or a burger boy.
Too costly, see Alcatraz.
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They should absolutely be given every opportunity to better themselves in prison.
I want these people when they come out to hold down a job, pay tax, and be a good member of society.
I don't want them to keep failing and failing and failing to find a job because they can't do anything, then end up smashing someone's face in with a golf club whilst burgling a house!
I want these people when they come out to hold down a job, pay tax, and be a good member of society.
I don't want them to keep failing and failing and failing to find a job because they can't do anything, then end up smashing someone's face in with a golf club whilst burgling a house!
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What? How can you judge to say someone is a threat to society or not? Are you in close contact with this person? Are you his physiatrist?
I agree prisoners should be allowed to earn qualifications. Once they're out, they're out and they have a job earning money, they're paying pack society what it cost for that qualification, and possibly their time in prison.
It's better than them coming out, and sitting around, and the likes of the taxpayer paying for them to live for free. No doubt you would be complaining then, saying whether they deserve to come out of prison or not!
Can't they do both? Work off their debt to society and train to become valuable members of society once released.
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Yes I do, if they come out after a few years with less than they did when they went in and half their life gone they are going to commit more crime. I don't want them having fun playing on Xbox's and Playstations but makin them do some work and education is not a bad thing.
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Let's face it, to a lot of them education itself is torture. 
Prison should give them the opportunity to better themselves. You can't have someone sit in prison for 15 years, becoming more and more hateful and wary of society, then release them with a "good boy!" and nothing to their name.
They'll have no skills, and no ability to get a job due to criminal record. Et Voilá, you have yourself a reoffender.
Prison should give them the opportunity to better themselves. You can't have someone sit in prison for 15 years, becoming more and more hateful and wary of society, then release them with a "good boy!" and nothing to their name.
They'll have no skills, and no ability to get a job due to criminal record. Et Voilá, you have yourself a reoffender.
Because decades of research and stats pretty much conclusively shows that harsher punishments and even the ultimate ie Death sentence acts as an insignificant deterant if at all!
And of course we should be teaching people skills in prisons, this significantly helps reduce re offending rates
Dolph, can you answer this. If an offender that committed a severe crime ie rape or murder to a family member of close friend of yours, what would be your view on rehabilitating the criminal then?
I can't say I am for this. In the USA, prisoners moan how they lack facilities to better educate themselves and gain new skills. If someone ruins another persons life and in the specifics of the case it was found to be caused by malicious intent only I find it hard to justify helping them. Who is to say they won't just become a more clever and able criminal?
With the case shown above, its down to the specifics of each case where a decision should be made. That's not to say I am entirely for it, but dependent on the crime and reasons surrounding each case should determine who receives help.
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I'm just using mail bags as a metaphor.
I'm all for prisoners earning qualifications, but they have plenty of time on their hands. The Working weekday hours should be spent working to pay towards their expensive imprisonment.
Both, in equal measure.
My opinion in such a situation should be disregarded, because it is going to be based on strong emotional feelings rather than anything rational.
Personally, I'd probably want to kill them, but that is largely beside the point. We do not and should not make laws based on emotion, especially those emotions of people with heavy involvement in the situation.
The bottom line is we don't want them committing crimes again. If education helps with that, and works out cheaper in the long run then I'm all for it. Our current system doesn't do as well at this as it should, but there is a lot of resistance to further measures shown to reduce recidivism because they are often seen as being 'soft' on criminals, despite the fact that all the evidence clearly shows that being 'tough' on criminals is definitely counter-productive if your aim is to actually reduce the chance of reoffending.
There certainly are some people who are beyond any help and simply should never be released. That doesn't mean we should confine all criminals to this group.
I speak from the perspective of actually being in prison. I was put in prison for defending myself. I was based in a remand centre for the whole of my sentence.
Whilst I am not scum like some like to think by mentioning prison, I consider myself a good member of the public. I have worked since the age of sixteen, never been in trouble before or after the incident. To the point now. Whilst in prison I gained my CLAIT cert. Which bought me onto the interest of pcs when I got out, I then started using 3ds max and I now freelance in 3d and also repair pcs part time. This came from the teaching in prison, if it was not for this I perhaps would never of got into pcs and gained work.
However the downsides to this are, my conviction became spent after 8 years. So for 8 years It was very difficult to get a job because employers sometimes knew that I had a criminal record so would not get a job because of it. So all the training in prison is a bit pointless because it is hard to get a job after anyway. Our own fault for going to prison.
Also most of the prisoners had no real basic grasp of english or maths, we had a maths lesson and I was very surprised when 10x and 5x tables were on the blackboard. Some of the guys genuinely wanted to learn, however they went back to their normal ways once being release. There is no rehabilitation once released. Well for the majority at least.
So to me if they are going to train inside prisons then it is important to help the majority once they are released. I still personally believe that some people will never ever get any better and continue the life of crime. Hard wired.
To say they should just break rocks is pointless. I can guarantee a lot of prisoners would be quite happy to break rocks instead of learning.
I do believe however that people that rape or murder should be removed from society altogether.
Whilst I am not scum like some like to think by mentioning prison, I consider myself a good member of the public. I have worked since the age of sixteen, never been in trouble before or after the incident. To the point now. Whilst in prison I gained my CLAIT cert. Which bought me onto the interest of pcs when I got out, I then started using 3ds max and I now freelance in 3d and also repair pcs part time. This came from the teaching in prison, if it was not for this I perhaps would never of got into pcs and gained work.
However the downsides to this are, my conviction became spent after 8 years. So for 8 years It was very difficult to get a job because employers sometimes knew that I had a criminal record so would not get a job because of it. So all the training in prison is a bit pointless because it is hard to get a job after anyway. Our own fault for going to prison.
Also most of the prisoners had no real basic grasp of english or maths, we had a maths lesson and I was very surprised when 10x and 5x tables were on the blackboard. Some of the guys genuinely wanted to learn, however they went back to their normal ways once being release. There is no rehabilitation once released. Well for the majority at least.
So to me if they are going to train inside prisons then it is important to help the majority once they are released. I still personally believe that some people will never ever get any better and continue the life of crime. Hard wired.
To say they should just break rocks is pointless. I can guarantee a lot of prisoners would be quite happy to break rocks instead of learning.
I do believe however that people that rape or murder should be removed from society altogether.
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I think it's an interesting idea, it certainly sits better in my mind than having them sitting around playing pool. I wonder how successful serious crime offenders are at obtaining employment after leaving prison however, I mean if you read someone's application form and you spotted that they had been in prison for murder would you not just file it straight in the bin?