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From: baines@utecfc.UUCP (Ian Totman)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: re: justice?!
Message-ID: <9@utecfc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 8-Sep-84 18:50:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: utecfc.9
Posted: Sat Sep  8 18:50:49 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Sep-84 20:23:20 EDT
Organization: U of Toronto Mech Engg
Lines: 23

  Re: capital punishment
                 What seems to be happening in our society is that the goal of
 rehabilitation (an admirable one) is resulting in society being seen to be
 too 'easy' on violent criminals and not taking into consideration the victims.
 Many criminals are habitual offenders and seem unable to fit into society for
 whatever reason. The question becomes "what do you do with these people?"
  We hear of the cost of keeping these criminals in our prisons, of the prisons
 just being a place for them to learn their trade, and of them being let out
 after relatively short (subjective assessment) periods of time to kill again.
  I'm not sure if I agree that capital punishment is the way to go (for many
 of the reasons Martin Taylor brought up) and because it *is* irreversible (what
 if the witnesses lied?). Also, any kind of 'standoff' between criminals and the
 police would be more dangerous since the criminals would be more tempted to
 fight to the death (since they would face that anyway).
  I would like to hear ideas people have as to how to protect society from those
 who don't seem to be able to live within it. Can we put prisons in more remote
 locations? Would the idea of actually making them WORK while in prison to help
 pay their debt help deter future incarcerations? (At least we would get some-
 thing useful from them. The act that put them there in the first place means
 they give up some rights - being forced to work, etc.) And is there a move
 (finally!) to give harsher sentences for violent crime (murder, rape, and
 other assault)?
							Ian