Bring back the death penalty?

[atlantis]

An interesting article here has an interesting arguement.

What do you think?

i think there needs to be such a thing as life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for certain crimes.

It's not really an interesting article. It's a bloke musing out loud about something he's not really thought about.

I quite like the civilised society I live in, one that has no room for such a barbaric act as the death penalty.

I don't agree with the death penalty - how can you rectify a miscarriage of justice when you've executed the person that was wrongly convicted? On those grounds alone it's a no brainer to me.

We do not need the death penalty because, as far as I am aware, we are now a civilised society.

That being said, I do personally believe that prisons need to become prisons again. I do not believe that committing a crime (especially a heinous one) entitles you to a television, xbox etc. If I had my way, each prisoner would get three balanced meals a day, as many books as they can read and an occupation within the prison. Just my opinion though.

I watched The Green Mile last night. Kind of puts you off the death penalty. Shit article btw.

Agree totally with SOH. There is no room for legalised murder in a civilised society.

I'm not sure I necessarily agree that having or not having the death penalty is a sign of a civilised society.

However, the real flaw in Frank Skinner's argument is that it is extremely expensive to execute someone due to the lengthy appeal process so reintroducing the death penalty wouldn't save public funds.

However, arguably, making the prison service more "basic" would.

I agree, bringing back the death penalty wouldn't be a good idea, but making prisons prisons again is a very good idea indeed.

People actually commit crimes so they can get back into the life they had in prison.

Its not a deterrant anymore.

Prisons should be prisons.

Sleep on straw and have scratchy blankets, use buckets as toilets and be fed bread and water.

No books etc and lots of manual labour, also, no parole, if you get sentenced to life, you should serve that time.

You're right Bratley. Prison has almost become a hotel. Recidivism rates continue to rise but yet we keep allowing more and more freedoms in prison. That being said, I cannot ever see this government agreeing to withdraw all the mod cons from prisons. I'm sure someone would cry that it was inhumane to expect them to live as I outlined earlier. Of course, we all know, expecting criminals to live without a tv and an xbox is bordering on torture.

No, let's not bring back the death penalty. It does not belong in a civilised society.

And having spent 3 years working in prisons they are not the luxury the media likes to make out.

In countries where there is a death penalty there is no reduction in crime. Why? because the vast majority of criminals don't believe they will e caught.

Yep agree with everyone. Make prisons hard work, make them do things that make the lives of law abiding people easier....hard graft, chain gangs, I'm all for it.

But the death penalty, no. If someone is a murderer, then you'd be paying someone else to (albeit legally) murder them and in our civilised society, that is wrong.

Look at the crime rates in USA, death penalty does not work.

Cymbid - the ones I heard of in this country who had been 'slopping out'.....took the Government to court over human rights and were financially compensated

Linky here

I've never supported the death sentence - but I dare say if somebody I loved was horribly murdered I'd probably change my mind.

I do agree that prison has become far too comfortable. Yes it needs to be about rehabilitation but we can't lose sight of the fact they are being punished too. Prison needs to be made into the sort of place that nobody would ever want to return to.

Many prisoners have admitted that life inside is far more luxurious than their life would be when they are set free.

cutting back on luxuries for prisoners: no tv, no games consoles, basic meals etc would save money too.

Squeezy, that is crazy!
Absolute madness.

Surely they should give up the right to luxuries the minute they are sent to prison as punishment for the crimes they've commited!?

Its just not feared enough anymore.

I do very much like the prisons are hotels/it's all x boxes and televisions stuff. It's not true at all and while there is a debate in there about appropriate rewards, it's not the holiday that some people assume.

And people saying prison is 'easy' and previous offenders wanting to get back to it is not as simple as saying it's the privileges that draw them or lack of hard labour and scratchy blankets that deters them. A man who leaves prison to return to a life of poverty where he doesn't know where his next meal is coming from, his only friends are still using, he has no job prospects because he has a criminal record, he has not improved his chances, abilities, skills etc while inside, well yes, I can see why a bed and food isn't that terrible a prospect.

The deterrent can only ever be the loss of freedom. Because you force a man to work in chain gangs and sleep on a floor, what place has he in society when his term ends? What of rehabilitation?

Now I'm a bleeding heart liberal and content to be so but you will not convince me that treating a person inhumanely in prison will prevent them from reoffending or help them to believe that society has a place for them where they have anything to offer than servility and nothing to receive other than abuse.

"how can you rectify a miscarriage of justice when you've executed the person that was wrongly convicted?"

Very true, but does this mean we're frequently locking up the wrong ones, but it doesn't matter much as we didn't execute them? I'm in favour of execution, but our first step should be to sort out the mess that is the current justice system.

"extremely expensive to execute someone"

Only because it's a lawyers paradise and is stretched out to make the most profit. What appeal can there be if there is clear evidence that you did it? and unless there IS clear evidence you shouldn't be there.

"having the death penalty is not a sign of a civilised society"

We already have a death penalty which our soldiers apply to our enemies. So we have established that it's ok to kill enemies of our society and are fiddling with the details.

"where there is a death penalty there is no reduction in crime"

When you see someone going back to court/prison for the 3rd/4th or 17th time you know for a fact that executing him the first time would have prevented his later crimes.

Personally I'd only have it for cases where it was the 2nd or 3rd conviction. Even if you think someone might be convicted wrongly it's hardly likely that someone is going to be wrongly accused more than once.

no but I think prison is too 'cosy' for certain uner-achieving fundamentally dishonest work-shy people. The bar is lwer in prison where things like hard work and qualifications aren't relevant, and with tvs and other luxiuries I think that prison suits some very well. the day is whiled away quite nicely.

And before somebody says 'how would YOU like it?" I haven't commited any crimes.

I would be interested to know how many of you have actually been inside prisons and seen how they work, what the cells are like and what they contain, what kind of work and education the offenders do, how rehabilitation programmes work, how time is spent by offenders, and what luxuries you feel that they have costant access to.

Showofhands, I don't think it's a holiday, and I'm not in favour of any type of cruelty, but it is a micro-world, a civilisation of sorts for those who are institutionalised. There are some who are comfortable with the structure of prison. It's not so harsh to them that it is a punishment.

I'm a liberal too, but I think people who imagine themselves in prison and how much they'd hate it are naive. There are people for whom a short stretch in the clink is no big deal.

The loss of liberty in itself would be met with a shrug by some.

Not saying that those convicted and sentenced to five years are going to whoop for joy, but for some, the adjustment period would be hard followed by four and a half easy years with some like-minded folk.

The people who are in and out of prison several times are surely not those who would be put to death anyway are they? Or are you just going to kill them all? Hmm, very civilised.

It will never be brought back, I am very certain fof that. And thank god.

I don't want to become part of a society that things killing someone because they do something wrong is okay. It is disciplicable that it can even take place anywhere in this world, let alone on our own doorsteps.

Me Hula .

DH is a pc, good friend/neighbour is a prison officer and I do some voluntary work there.

SOH - and I agree with what you say in your posts.

But Maggie the day isn't whiled away quite nicely for the vast majority. It's a lonely, isolating, depressing, restrictive, basic existence for many. The reality of it that is.