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No, one of the severe structural issues in our society is our habit of trying to solve all of our problems with imprisonment.
by platinumrad 6y ago
No, one of the severe structural issues in our society is our habit of trying to solve all of our problems with imprisonment.
- vkou 6y agoOur society does not try to solve high-level problems with prison, only low-level ones. Steal $500 from your boss, you may get prison time. Your boss steals $500 from each of his employees through wage theft, and the worst he would face is being out some money from losing a civil labour lawsuit. That's because most high level behaviour has an incredibly high bar that it needs to meet to be criminal, with a lot of subjective argument over intent. The bar for low level crime is much easier to meet. Take something that doesn't belong to you? Hit your neighbour with a club? Ingest a taboo mind-altering chemical? All of those are crystal-meth-clear violations of the social contract.
- mschuster91 6y agoHundreds of people died. I agree that prisons are used way too much (especially relating to drugs, three strikes crap, fare dodging, crimes relating to poverty aka petty theft) - but gross negligence that leads to multiple deaths should warrant some prison time, if only to serve as an incentive for management to not cut corners.