kengr

The main problem with the death penalty is that if you goof, you can't take it back.

Then again, imprisonment can't actually be taken back, but at least you are alive.

On the other hand imprisonment has it's own issues. And when you get right down to it, the odds are that unless they keep that guy in isolation the whole time he's in prison, he's likely to be killed anyway. By the other prisoners. (I've known ex-cons, they've got standards. That guys counts as scum by *their* standards, just like child molesters)

Imprisonment doesn't really *solve* the problem. It just postpones it. And it's actually a very recent practice.

I'd feel a lot better about imprisonment if the prisons didn't actually *encourage* a lot of criminal behavior. And they are the worst for the people who might actually have the best chance of being rehabilitated if we actually *tried* that anymore.

As it is, assaults, rape & extortion (ie "protection racket" type stuff) are "normal" in prisons. And most of the guards not only don't care, they *use* these things to keep "troublemakers" in line.

I love how the courts decided that 24/7 video surveillance violates prisoner's rights, but don't consider the assaults, rapes & murders that it'd prevent to be worthy of consideration.