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I agree with this 100%, but the last paragraph is worded poorly, and almost guaranteed to attract debate from both honest and bad-faith dissenters. Restated:

I agree with this 100%, but the last paragraph is worded poorly, and almost guaranteed to attract debate from both honest and bad-faith dissenters. Restated: Throwing people in prison does not fix the problem. We have tried it for a long time at various levels of intensity and it has provably not worked, and no additional level of intensity has improved things. We can't _just keep doing this_ and expect that at some point things will get better. We need to address the root causes that lead so many people into situations where they find it reasonable or are desperate enough to commit those crimes. That's how you make a dent in this problem, and that's what we should work on transitioning to. Fix the top of the funnel, and you won't have nearly as many concentrated violent problems down at the bottom of it to deal with.

93po 3y ago
I agree, and thanks.
ggariepy 3y ago
Some percentage of the population is comprised of violent sociopaths. Those people need to be locked up for the safety of the rest of us. People who have committed victimless crimes, like minor drug use, should almost never be incarcerated. People who have defrauded other people in some way, including petty larceny, should be punished by some means other than incarceration. Pretty much what I'm saying is that jail time should be reserved solely for the violent.
- DanHulton 3y ago
  A very, very, very small percentage of the population is "violent sociopaths", though, and optimizing your society for solving that problem incurs huge amounts of waste. Which isn't to say there should be _no_ answer to that question, but more that the answer to that question shouldn't also be the answer to all the other crime encountered. Not even all the violent crime, which is frequently a product not of the individual, but of the situation that individual is placed in.
ddingus 3y ago
This is a solid comment. People in general often failed to see these matters in an inclusive way.
shrimp_emoji 3y ago
Restorative justice, decoupled from moral judgment and lust for revenge, and effective and equitable investment in your entire population? Nah, not retarded enough.

93po 3y ago

I agree, and thanks.

ggariepy 3y ago

Some percentage of the population is comprised of violent sociopaths. Those people need to be locked up for the safety of the rest of us. People who have committed victimless crimes, like minor drug use, should almost never be incarcerated. People who have defrauded other people in some way, including petty larceny, should be punished by some means other than incarceration. Pretty much what I'm saying is that jail time should be reserved solely for the violent.

DanHulton 3y ago
A very, very, very small percentage of the population is "violent sociopaths", though, and optimizing your society for solving that problem incurs huge amounts of waste. Which isn't to say there should be _no_ answer to that question, but more that the answer to that question shouldn't also be the answer to all the other crime encountered. Not even all the violent crime, which is frequently a product not of the individual, but of the situation that individual is placed in.

ddingus 3y ago

This is a solid comment. People in general often failed to see these matters in an inclusive way.

shrimp_emoji 3y ago

Restorative justice, decoupled from moral judgment and lust for revenge, and effective and equitable investment in your entire population? Nah, not retarded enough.