SURE, BUT WILL IT BE RAPTURE PROOF?

[Perndog]

The court order will be arriving shortly, Max. You're going to regret that dare.

[kellychaos]

Originally Posted by mburbank

Well... Um, yeah, I guess. But where did I say that? And what exactly is it supposed to say about my character? There's all kinds of nonviolent crime. A guy who gets busted for smoking dope? I don't see the point of incarcerating him. White collar criminals who impact the entire economy, screw up peoples retirements, run the company into the ground and get paid millions to do it? It's not violent but it's malacious, greedy and it ruins lives. I say hard time, long time.

I think creating a special religion speciffic jail is creepy. Sue me.

What's the difference between white collar criminal who uses a computer and an armed robber who uses a weapon?

About ten years! :RIMSHOT Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Thank you ... I'll be here all week. It sounds like different means to the same end and the violent offender (unless he actually kills someone) has relatively little impact on society as a whole and usually the payoff (if he gets away with it) is a fraction of that of the white collar criminal. Yet the white collar criminal, more often than not, is probably a seemingly religious man whilst the heathen who robbed the gas station is the one that needs the baby Jesus. Figure that one out! I guess I'd be in need of religious consolation too if my punishment way exceeded the seriousness of my crime and the system is skewed in favor of the already rich or, at least, middle class.

[The One and Only...]

All that I'm saying is that you need to learn to compromise. I am more worried about the incarcerated pot smoker being in jail than I am worried about having religion pseudo-forced on him while he is being rehabilitated. I'm willing to compromise my beliefs about church in state so that these people will get out prison and can become normal, productive members of society again (which a lot of druggies are).

As for white collar crime... screw jail. He'll just buy his way into one of those "special" prisons which are really like upscale hotels. Fine the son of bitch to hell and back. Take away a heck of a lot more than he made on the crime. Lowers taxes, and is more effective.

[Perndog]

While we're talking ideal punishments for a white collar criminal, I say give him 30 lashes along with those big fines and set him loose immediately (but watch him in case he didn't learn his lesson). Repeal that whole cruel and unusual thing while you're at it... to paraphrase Heinlein, the whole point of punishment is cruelty, and to add my own opinion, if it's unusual the criminal will just remember it better.

In case you want to call me insensitive again (which I am) or stupid (which I don't think I am), yes, Max, I really do think this would be a good idea, because I don't commit crimes so I wouldn't have to worry about being whipped myself.

[The One and Only...]

Why wouldn't you whip blue collars?

And why not do it publicly?

The real issue here is not about whether or not truly heinous persons deserve such treatment, but the chances of an innocent receiving them - not to mention legally guilty, but morally innocent persons as well.

[Perndog]

Oh, I would whip criminals for everything else too; I just happened to single out the guy in your example. And publicly for certain.

Justice for the innocent is one of many reasons I'm not actually involved in law.

[mburbank]

While I'm all in favor of getting non violent drug users out of our jails, your choice

" I'm willing to compromise my beliefs about church in state so that these people will get out prison and can become normal, productive members of society again (which a lot of druggies are). "

isn't what Jeb Bush is offering. He's talking about special treatment for christians and segregating prisoners based on religous beliefs. He isn't offering any kind of trade off, so saying you're willing to sacrafice one thing for another is in no way germaine.

As for both of your ideas about whipping inmates, while you may think you will never be on the wrong side of the law, you don't know it. I see compassion as a virtue, not a way to get what you want, or for that mnatter as a hedge against future ill treatment. My belief that prison should be about rehabilitatiion and not about punishment is in no way linked to what crimes I feel I may be likely to commit.

[The One and Only...]

My view is that prisons should be about punishment, but only once we have eliminated over half of the crimes we have.

The way I read it made me think that these prisoners would be given parole earlier if they went to religious councelling, which apparently is not the case.

[Protoclown]

I THOUGHT you were supposed to act like you're smart.