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this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Other countries don't follow the punitive approach to criminal law, but rather a reformative. With the facts we are presented with it actually seems more like a failure of society instead of just one man. The sentence is absolutely ridiculous.
Masochists enjoy having pain inflicted upon themselves, sadists enjoy seeing other people suffer.
There are cases to reform somebody, and I fully agree that we must try that. In some cases. Which this is absolutely not.
Well an arguement could be made that he's not going to do it again.
Think about the distinction between a contract killer and somebody who committed a crime of passion. Are both of those people equally likely to reoffend?
If the objective is to either reform someone or simply remove a threat from society then both cases require different approaches.
An argument could be made, sure, but I don’t think it would be effective. If a person has the capacity to willingly murder their family members over an issue of eviction, then I don’t know how much capacity for reform they have. They pose an imminent and ongoing danger to anyone near them; an unacceptable level of risk in a tolerant society.
Beyond that concept, there’s very little (if any) benefit to society to reforming and releasing this man. Any work that would need to be done to ensure this man could never kill again would take a considerable amount of time. He’s already 66 - let’s say it only takes four years (somehow), then he’ll be released when he’s 70. He already has health complications which likely put his life expectancy well below average, meaning his death is probably impending in the next decade - probably sooner based on substandard penal medical care.
Trying to reform this man is like trying to keep a 21 year old dog alive - sure you can do it, and you’ll probably feel better about yourself if you do, but there’s no real benefit to the dog or society at large. He should have just been handed life without parole instead of 100 years - that seems like a sentence that could be appealed due to the silly nature of how long it is.
Just want to point out that in Canada the stats are extremely clear, murderers are the convicts that are the least likely to commit the same crime that got them convicted again if they get released. Obviously there's a panel to decide if they're ready to come out and some of them never will, it doesn't mean they shouldn't be given the tools to reform themselves.
I've never thought anything over 10 years was appropriate to a once-in-a-lifetime type of crime of passion. It's enough time for a decent remediation process to prevent a repeat offense OR prove a certainty that the person cannot be trusted free due to mental issues and put them in a permanent non-punitive form of imprisonment.
In his case, if he didn't have access to firearms, he wouldn't be able to kill anyone. Sounds like he needs specialized assisted living, like the old guy who held himself hostage with a shotgun the next town over from me
Nobody can mistake that the 100 years isn't for the good of society, but to punish him for taking a life.
I think most countries actually do both.
It can be both punitive and reformative.
I'm not saying I agree I'm saying with the system we have it seems fairly reasonable.
We can talk about why and how the prison system is fucked beyond belief but that won't change the fact that he needs somewhere to go at the moment.
Yeah let's reform this 66 year old child murderer.
He can repent and do good works behind bars just fine.
US prisons aren't humane, so it's impossible to do good work behind bars.
It's also impossible for him to murder anyone else before he kicks the bucket himself. I'd call that a win.
So, should the goal for prison be to serve as punishment or to literally torture people? Either way, they're separated from everyone else.
Is this your first time ever hearing of the american prison system, or do you just not consider prisoners to be people?
Guess he should just be executed then, since he can't be reformed and prison isn't humane.
I didn't know you were a psychiatrist specialized in reformation. Good thing we have you to know who can and can't be reformed.
He should be, yes.
You know, I'm all for rehabilitation, but some people just don't merit having that effort wasted on them.
What the hell are you going to reform in a 66 year old man who needs an oxygen tank? Who made the choice to kill children?
I don't want to reform someone like that, I want them removed from society and if you cared you'd feel the same way. If you kill children, you lose your membership in society, period. Just throw the key away on him, and if you want to argue about it, go be his bunkmate.
He should have gotten the death sentence
A 66 year old man who wants to kill his girlfriend and his son is not worth wasting the effort of any decent person to try and rehabilitate.
Let’s spend scarce resources on people who might actually be helped.
Europe has lower crime rates because of fewer guns, not because of some enlightened prison system. Crime is created by need and opportunity. Punishment barely does anything and rehabilitation doesn't solve the root cause of crime.
Not true, true, not true. 1/3 is not very accurate.