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Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by crawfordcomeaux on Thursday September 20, 2018 @10:54AM (#18032860)
Only if you wish to persist a violent system aiming to wreck lives. We could instead try to help everyone involved heal from the event(s) and initiate processes to uncover systemic issues leading to them. I'd rather the latter.
Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by euroclydon on Thursday September 20, 2018 @10:58AM (#18032890)
I'm just pointing out that wrongful convictions are a separate issue from the practices and pervasiveness of imprisonment.
Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by malvosenior on Thursday September 20, 2018 @11:41AM (#18033265)
I think this makes sense for a lot of crimes, but not murder. If you take someone's life, you should be prepared to spend a long time in prison. That's a reasonable punishment for the crime.
Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by ben_w on Thursday September 20, 2018 @11:59AM (#18033436)
This relates to a fundamental question of what the criminal justice system is for: Punishment, deterrent, undoing wrongs, etc.

I predict that I’m in the minority in believing what I’m about to say: In the unlikely event that it turned out the best way of minimising homicide was to promise every single convict £1 million and a 12 hour episode television show in their name, if that actually minimised homicide, I’d be in favour of that response to it. I will of course freely admit that the reason I can say something so shocking is because I don’t know anyone who’s been murdered.

I care about minimising the aggregate rate of all homicide, not punishment for it’s own sake.

Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by malvosenior on Thursday September 20, 2018 @02:08PM (#18034396)
Even if it did lower the aggregate homicide rate, would you want to live in a society where murdering someone was rewarded with £1 million and a tv show? I don't think the homicide rate is the only metric one can use to judge quality of life.
Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by ben_w on Friday September 21, 2018 @03:36AM (#18037868)
I understand that other people don’t think like me. For me this would be little different to the current status quo with gory horror films, which I abhor almost vitriolically.
Re:New York inmate's golf drawings lead to exoneration in mu... by creep on Thursday September 20, 2018 @12:01PM (#18033449)
I don't think the person you replied to is advocating for punishment at all.