scrafinator writes:
I would actually rather that guilty people spend the rest of their lives in jail (for murder, etc.), not set free (and not put to death), in order to ensure that the innocent are not killed by the state.
I think that a perfect system in which innocent people are not wrongly imprisoned isn't possible.
I agree and am against the death penalty. I see no reason why the prison system couldn’t maintain all of the current practices for death row, (i.e. 23 out of 24 hours per day in a small cell, tight security, etc), just don’t kill them.
Mr. Gotti writes:
I realize this. My point was that life in prison is not, thus what is the increase in penalty for killing in prison w/o a DP? Solitary? Is that all????? I think that would cheapen the life of the victims who the killer killed in prison.This is not an abstract, killers kill in prison all the time.
It seems to me this treatment of solitary confinement would be a deterrent to a murderer continuing a murder spree in prison. Or, put it another way, it would be a significant enticement for them to behave in order to rejoin the general and less restrictive prison population.
But there will always be those nut cases who cannot avoid the compulsion to kill. In that case, keep them in solitary for life.
Mr Gotti, I don’t know your experiences, but if you had seen first hand how prisoners in maximum security prisons are treated and in particular those in solitary, then your comment Is that all??? might be------rephrased.
Solitary in a max security prison is no picnic and represents a significant difference in lifestyle from the type of prison life one has in the general prison population.