(urth) This Week in Google Alerts: Home Fires

[Lee Berman]

I disagree with those who find the only tragedy in the death penalty
to be the execution of an innocent person. Why is freeing a lifelong
thief, drunk driver and wife beater a greater positive than the execution
or keeping a guilty but one-time-only murderer in prison for life who would 
have done positive things in their community?

Tragedy comes to people and families inside and outside the justice system.
I find that greater harm comes to a society which willfully perpetrates
tragedy on people in the name of justice. As I suggested to Marc, it is
not a coincidence that the US States which allow the death penalty generally
have higher murder rates than those which do not. True to some degree also
for nations of the world.
 
People DO look to their government and leadership for cues on how to solve
life's problems. In some ways, how a society treats its prisoners will filter 
down to how people treat each other in general. If the government kills to 
solve its problems we can assume a higher likelihood that the population will
use that method more often in handling their personal problems.
 
David, as I said, I don't know the answer to the supermax problem. What DO you
do with a prisoner who is a ticking time bomb, inevitably engaged in either
killing someone in prison or being killed by another? Do you have any ideas?
All I can think of is more money allocated to make humane conditions even for
these lost souls.  There must be some way to allow for some limited, safe
human contact. Even Hannibal Lector needed someone to talk to and have a meal
with....um...erm..never mind.