Quote:
Originally Posted by All-American
I am not particularly inclined to believe prison is a deterrent if the prisoners ever get out. It's a concrete Hilton where they get all of there contacts.
I think there are better ways to deal with crime that will never be entertained, simply because we feel the need to lock the SOBs up.
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You and others seem to be confusing recidivism with deterrence. REcidivism is higher among criminals who have been incarcerated, the schools of crime idea. At the same time, many persons are deterred from committing crimes becasue of the threat of prison. Moreover, one must distinguish property crimes from violent crimes from murders, as these principles don't alwasy apply straight across each oif these types of crime. The point in this context,however, is that we have alternative punishments: life time imprisonment and the DP. The DP adds nothing to deterrence, prevention of recidivism or justice and offers only a mean type of retribution. So, life in prison seems to be a better option as it avoids expense, gives the state the moral high ground and if the state was wrong you can always let the guy out of prison, as oppsed to sending a mea culpa to his heirs.