Civil Commitment?????

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Originally Posted by Jimbo

How long have we been locking up criminals to "protect society"? 600 years? 800 years? And how effective has it been? As far as I can see, not at all. Sure, the particular person is taken off the streets, but have we eliminated murder, rape, theft, paedophilia, etc from society? No, from what I can see. What was Einstein's definition of insanity?

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they aren't locked up to protect society, they are locked up to protect the social contract, a concept that dates back to Hammurabi. it is the human condition to have rules and for people to break them, you won't cure that until every last human is dead... so instead you have a social contract: an idea, that breaking the rules will get you punished. it won't prevent people from breaking the rules, nothing can prevent that, but it can make people realize there is a cost they will have to pay for breaking the rules. if they get desperate or crazy enough, they won't care and will break them anyway. no way to stop a crazy/desperate person, Socrates figured that out 2000+ years ago, and it hasn't changed since.

You serve your time then you walk as a free man. If we start tacking on ways to keep people in the system, then we are, for all intents and purposes, corrupting that system.

I'm not a huge fan of the death penalty because it's the easy way out, and I'm not sure any one will ever find proof that 'we need the death penalty'.

I'm not sure the point of locking people up was ever to eliminate a problem, just make sure there is a socially agreeable price for committing a crime. I would say it has been fairly successful, sure, you hear of crime rates soaring etc etc but you're still dealing with a minority of the population. If there was no cost, I wonder how many more rapists and murderers our streets would host?

There are 2 things that need considering.

1) paying the debt to society. Serve your time and that's it.
2) protection of the society. Pedophile recidivism is horrible. If someone is a convicted pedophile, that person should never again in his life be placed in a position of trust, and imo should warrant life-long follow up as well. There are just too many instances of pedophiles getting out, and then sometime later caught again.

I think the penalty up front should be enough to ensure they'll not want to do anything against the law again. I'm not exactly for the death penalty. It costs more than just keeping them in jail the rest of their lives on the one hand. Unless you take away their right to appeal and if you do then our system of justice isn't a system at all anymore. Plus you make sure a repeat offender will tend to just kill his victims since he's going to get the death penalty either way.

But the penalties up front are not stiff enough and the time they serve is too easy on them. But that is a discussion for another thread.

Just my two cents.

'I wear it for the Prisioner who has long paid for his crime, but is there because he is a victim of the times'

Was listening to the Man in Black, seems fitting for this thread.

I am getting some different perspectives for sure on this one Thanks Guys....

I guess I am slightly less civilized than most, when it it to crimes against a person I really have no sympathy what so ever.... Honestly I have never figured out why there is a death penalty available for murder but none available for attempted murder, the only difference is that one is a more efficient criminal...

But I still have a itch about civil commitment after the fact, it almost feels like cheating to me...I guess i should look at it as the State's appeals process :) I mean the criminal gets plenty of chances why shouldn't the State...

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

I guess I am slightly less civilized than most, when it it to crimes against a person I really have no sympathy what so ever....

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So why afford them the quick exit?

It's not that uncommon for inmates to kill themselves, surely that is evidence enough that it's a greater suffering.

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Originally Posted by gregs656

So why afford them the quick exit?

It's not that uncommon for inmates to kill themselves, surely that is evidence enough that it's a greater suffering.

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Maybe it would create a win-win situation if the state offered free euthanization to any prisoner who requested it in writing. Then they could process the offender to feed the others who elect to stick it out:
YouTube - IT'S PEOPLE!

Just feed the homeless to convicts, kill two birds with one stone ;)

But seriously, a state funded get out of jail free card wouldn't sit with me. If they want to hang, they can figure it out them selves.

Glen, while I agree with the incurable nature of pedophilia, civil commitment strikes me as vaguely totalitarian and specifically unconstitutional when dealing with an individual that has served a full sentence for a crime, such sentence determined by statute, trial, and legal authority.

I have no sage comments on the subject of how to reduce crime in society as I am skeptical such is even possible.