4 ms·

Lots of things were science fiction before they were science. Our ability to treat mental illness today is better than it was 75 years ago. Why not try to find

Lots of things were science fiction before they were science. Our ability to treat mental illness today is better than it was 75 years ago. Why not try to find ways that we can stop paying for people to be in prisons, and instead put them back in society and growing the economy. There is a ton of money put into locking people up. It would pay for itself to figure out how to rehabilitated a small percentage of them. There are already "twelve step" programs which are mandated by courts. Something that was evidence based would surely work better. But instead the focus in the US is on punishment, victims rights, three strikes laws and being tough on crime.

NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
> Lots of things were science fiction before they were science. Our ability to treat mental illness today is better than it was 75 years ago. This isn't a counter-argument. Lots of things that were science fiction 50 years ago are still science fiction today. However, I will keep an open mind. If in the future someone claims to understand rehabilitation and can prove this, I will consider their work/theory. I will not "just try it anyway" today because of wishful thinking. > Why not try to find ways that we can stop paying for people to be in prisons Fine by me, as long as it doesn't involve science fiction. I even have some suggestions: Legalize drugs. Don't decriminalize them. Don't just legalize marijuana either... legalize cocaine, heroin, meth. Pardon everyone for their drug crimes (but not violent crimes associated with drug dealing). Do this, and you can substantially reduce both the number of people in prison, and the average time spent there. Low level drug dealers won't spend time in prison learning to be psychopaths. Drug users won't commit burglaries and theft trying to pay for their drug habit (if they'll do anything for a fix, anything includes scrubbing toilets). Of course, this won't happen. People believe the television shows they watch where someone who uses meth once turns into a demon. > Something that was evidence based would surely work better. I agree. But this is a problem I think requires a working theory of mind/intelligence. (Funny how it's either another variation of the AI problem, or related to it, eh?) We don't have that. > But instead the focus in the US is on punishment This is because we are monkeys. I don't mean metaphorically, but literally. Monkeys have instinctual senses of justice that demand punishment and vengeance and so forth. If you remove punishment from the equation, this would be bad. The state punishes so that the monkeys will feel as if justice has occurred, and will refrain from performing their own justice. Do you want revenge killings and vigilanteeism to rise?

NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago

> Lots of things were science fiction before they were science. Our ability to treat mental illness today is better than it was 75 years ago. This isn't a counter-argument. Lots of things that were science fiction 50 years ago are still science fiction today. However, I will keep an open mind. If in the future someone claims to understand rehabilitation and can prove this, I will consider their work/theory. I will not "just try it anyway" today because of wishful thinking. > Why not try to find ways that we can stop paying for people to be in prisons Fine by me, as long as it doesn't involve science fiction. I even have some suggestions: Legalize drugs. Don't decriminalize them. Don't just legalize marijuana either... legalize cocaine, heroin, meth. Pardon everyone for their drug crimes (but not violent crimes associated with drug dealing). Do this, and you can substantially reduce both the number of people in prison, and the average time spent there. Low level drug dealers won't spend time in prison learning to be psychopaths. Drug users won't commit burglaries and theft trying to pay for their drug habit (if they'll do anything for a fix, anything includes scrubbing toilets). Of course, this won't happen. People believe the television shows they watch where someone who uses meth once turns into a demon. > Something that was evidence based would surely work better. I agree. But this is a problem I think requires a working theory of mind/intelligence. (Funny how it's either another variation of the AI problem, or related to it, eh?) We don't have that. > But instead the focus in the US is on punishment This is because we are monkeys. I don't mean metaphorically, but literally. Monkeys have instinctual senses of justice that demand punishment and vengeance and so forth. If you remove punishment from the equation, this would be bad. The state punishes so that the monkeys will feel as if justice has occurred, and will refrain from performing their own justice. Do you want revenge killings and vigilanteeism to rise?