5 ms·
I think that prisoners wronged society and owe society a debt. If their sentence includes work that benefits society in some way, that should be fair? I haven't
by eloff 4y ago
I think that prisoners wronged society and owe society a debt. If their sentence includes work that benefits society in some way, that should be fair? I haven't thought about it too much, but it doesn't seem unreasonable on the surface.
- gretch 4y agoYeah but it creates an societal incentive to categorize people as criminals and send them to prison. I think there’s a lot of things on the fence today where view it as not immoral, but for some reason are still crimes. For example, non violent marijuana cases. Incentives like free prison labor sometimes adds to that in an unhealthy way
- eloff 4y agoNot if the judicial system is separate. I would say the problem here is stupid laws putting people in jail for being in possession of drugs for personal consumption. I think it's a separate concern.
- roflyear 4y agoLaws are a political thing not a justice system thing. The justice system enforces the laws and penalties. I guess they can choose not to enforce laws, but again, politics....
- swatcoder 4y agoAs food for thought: 1. Are you sure your vision of prison’s role is universal or even prevailing? 2. Even if so, who’s responsible for quantifying the debt? 3. Who determines the means by which the debt is paid? 4. Who benefits most directly by the payment? 5. What systems are in place to prevent corruption by the agents identified in 2-4? The debate is a live one because the current answers to those questions aren’t very convincing to people who worry about exploitation.
- efnx 4y agoBenefiting society is one thing, but padding a corporation’s profit is another.
- eloff 4y agoPresumably it would go towards defraying some of the costs of incarceration, which society pays for.
- int_19h 4y agoIn a similar vein, prisoners on death row wronged society and owe it a debt. If their death sentence includes postmortem organ extraction for transplantation, which would save quite a few lives, that should be fair, right? ~
- eloff 4y agoYes
- int_19h 4y agoThereby creating the incentive to punish more crimes with death, since that's how the "law-abiding citizens" will ensure a steady supply of organs to prolong their lives.
- eloff 4y agoYeah, I don't see how to avoid that. It's probably a bad idea then. It's a bummer to waste good organs, but I see your point about the potential for abuse.
- roflyear 4y agoUpper class needs more organs? Make more death penalty crimes ;)
- roflyear 4y agoIt's not a problem until you're incentivized to lock people up to get free labor.