Are you a punative person or a forgiving person?

[Dawggie]

Today in the U.S. we have one of the highest per capita prison populations in the world.

This, i feel, may be due to so many feel so powerless that they want to feel above those who break the slightest law.

Drugs?

then the offender must be of color or at the best, white trash. 10-15 years

Alcohol?

The offender surely would have killed with a vengeance if only given a chance to drive his or her car another mile. 5-10 years.


16-18 year old stupid things that most of us have gotten away with in our lifetimes?

Put them to prison!



Today's jail and prison systems are so overcrowded that there are no effective rehabilitation programs. They are simply storage facilities filled with those that didn't have the money to afford a good lawyer. these are suicide centers and training centers set to spit out death, anger and better criminals than the ones they took in.




We feel weak to control things around ourselves and are frightened by the government at every corner. We compensate with knee jerk reactions to minor infractions and we PUNISH those poor bastards that fall through the cracks.


Violent crimes? Obvious intentional crimes? Yes, we must punish those things, but when a person will spend more time in jail than a murderer for a drug or alcohol related crime?

Something's wrong there. Very wrong.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. is this a rhetorical question?

:yoiks:

[Dawggie]

2. Yes and no.

:)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. ~

;)

good thread.

[Dawggie]

4. Thanks, I thought so but not too many folks want to step in

on it.

i guess that's a bit of a statement in itself.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. pretty much tells you about the state of things around here

kind of sad, isn't it?

[begin_within]

5. As far as personal interactions, revenge is so much better than forgiveness.

Forgiving someone leaves the door open to the offender to commit the offense all over again. So you can't forgive. Revenge is better. Then you just have to end the relationship.

[zalinda]

7. Here's my take on this subject, for what it's worth

When I get angry, I want someone punished, so I devise all kinds of things in my head on how I could punish them. But when it comes right down to it, I don't want anyone punished. I want people to make amends. And, if they can't make amends to people that they've wronged, they should be making amends to society.

I think every prison should be as self sustaining as possible. I think every prison should be making things that would benefit society........for the poor, the disadvantaged, the elderly or those who are in need. I don't think they should be making money for the prisons or the state.

I think that being self sufficient would give the prison population a sense of responsibility, and manufacturing things for the least among us would give them a sense of community. I think that education should be a part of every prison, and that a high school diploma should be mandatory for release. I think that petty criminals should not be housed with murderers, so that those who can be rehabilitated will have as few scars as possible when released.

Well, there's a lot more, but I won't bore you.

zalinda

[TheUniverse]

8. A lotta of that is human nature.

People want other people to be punished and take pleasure in other people's pain. I will say most people do. But the smart people will control those feelings and rise above.