4 ms·

Noting that overly harsh and unjust punishments are a waste of taxpayer money is not the same thing at all as opposing punishments that are (believed to be) jus

by skwirl 12y ago

Noting that overly harsh and unjust punishments are a waste of taxpayer money is not the same thing at all as opposing punishments that are (believed to be) just but that are expensive. By your reasoning, since sending someone to jail costs more than not sending them to jail, this judge should believe that nobody ever should be sent to jail.

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
In the US jails are for-profit. Justice is secondary - never mind rehabilitation. So while costs come out of taxes, those tax revenues are paid to benefit prison shareholders and managers. Bow does the public benefit from this arrangement? It doesn't exist to prevent crime. In fact it increases it by labelling low-impact activities like marijuana possession as serious crimes deserving of jail time. Jail vs not-jail is a false dichotomy, because reality-tested alternatives do exist. See e.g. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/06/glasgow-murder-rate-knife-gang-crime-police http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/06/glasgow-murde...
- maxerickson 12y ago
  Less than 10% of US prisoners are housed in private prisons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison#In_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison#In_the_United_St...
  - gtremper 12y ago
    There are still people who profit from the non-privite prisons. The money is going somewhere.
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      You could take my comment as a request that people trying to discuss the issue try to do it in an at least a slightly nuanced way. If they are including the farmers that grow the grain that ends up in the prison bread as part of the prison industry, I want them to say so.
- skwirl 12y ago
  Your reply has nothing to do with what I posted. Thanks for the downvote, though.
gtremper 12y ago
I think its more that if the "value" to society of sending the person to jail is less than the cost of sending them to jail, then you shouldn't do it. In this case, he's expressing that the value of sending them to jail is much lower than the cost.

by skwirl 12y ago

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago

In the US jails are for-profit. Justice is secondary - never mind rehabilitation. So while costs come out of taxes, those tax revenues are paid to benefit prison shareholders and managers. Bow does the public benefit from this arrangement? It doesn't exist to prevent crime. In fact it increases it by labelling low-impact activities like marijuana possession as serious crimes deserving of jail time. Jail vs not-jail is a false dichotomy, because reality-tested alternatives do exist. See e.g. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/06/glasgow-murder-rate-knife-gang-crime-police http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/apr/06/glasgow-murde...

maxerickson 12y ago
Less than 10% of US prisoners are housed in private prisons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison#In_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison#In_the_United_St...
- gtremper 12y ago
  There are still people who profit from the non-privite prisons. The money is going somewhere.
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    You could take my comment as a request that people trying to discuss the issue try to do it in an at least a slightly nuanced way. If they are including the farmers that grow the grain that ends up in the prison bread as part of the prison industry, I want them to say so.
skwirl 12y ago
Your reply has nothing to do with what I posted. Thanks for the downvote, though.

gtremper 12y ago

I think its more that if the "value" to society of sending the person to jail is less than the cost of sending them to jail, then you shouldn't do it. In this case, he's expressing that the value of sending them to jail is much lower than the cost.