March 20, 2007
Penal reform?
Here we have the story of a man who spent 18 years in prison for a rape that recent DNA analysis suggests he did not commit. I can't really comment on that per se, as I don't know any more of the facts than that. What I do know is that he's just been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing a photographer two years after he was released from prison. He used the money he was awarded in his wrongful-imprisonment suit for his defense.
Somehow it doesn't seem to me that prison has much point anymore. Not really a deterrent. I know there are problems with it, but somehow replacing each year of a sentence with a stroke from the lash and eliminating life-without in favor of increased executions strikes me as at least as reasonable as the bizarre system we've got now.
As far as I can tell, our modern penal system is based on the fact that almost all people can be rehabilitated, given enough education and/or time. I think the opinion is something like "people only do bad things because they don't realize they're bad." This is akin to the Aristotelian assumption that all people seek happiness, and those that do it in bad ways do so because they don't realize those ways are bad.
This is a nice idea and all, but has trouble explaining why so many people do happiness so very badly. This leaves me with three possiblities: either almost nobody actually knows how to get happiness, or people really can get some form of happiness in bad ways (i.e. people can actually be evil and enjoy it!), or many people don't really want happiness after all. I tend to think the truth is some amalgam of those, as I've known people I'd fit into each category (and some I could fit into more than one).
I understand the need for a chance at redemption, and I do think jails do provide this chance. A crime of passion as a young man doesn't mean one can't learn from his mistake and turn into a productive member of society, and jail can provide the time to figure that out. However, the man in question has to want to figure it out. As it seems like most people don't, then yes, a better, more permanent (and less expensive) solution would be handy. Execution fits at least two of those. Personally, I'm kind of a fan of exile, actually, though I don't see how it would be practical in this day and age.
Posted by: Dave at March 20, 2007 9:25 AMNothing new. After theories of Beccaria, penitance, and rehabilitation ran their respective courses, the jail system in the nineteenth century did nothing but grow and better few. you're absolutly right: we're at the same brick wall.
And as much as i'd like to see the chain-gangs back at work and in a wider context, i think there'd be problems with labor unions doing the same work. meh.
But read Beccaria next chance you get.
Posted by: jCave at March 20, 2007 9:30 PM