Prison Justice

[mactastic]

Those who think this was a good or appropriate thing are condoning premeditated murder by the way.

 

[rueyeet]

Originally posted by idea_hamster
A great question -- it's the Fermat's Theorem of the justice system....Reforming our justice system usually requires that we agree on why we are jailing people. This is not easy (read: not possible).

Heck, I can't even decide myself which of those five reasons would be the truth if ever I or someone I loved were the target of a violent criminal, so it's perfectly understandable that society can't agree either. But it does seem like we should be able to keep ourselves safe from such people without either cosseting or mistreating them: too bad we can't agree, as a society, on where that line lies either. Basically, our own understanding of discipline and retribution is so screwed up that it's no wonder that our prisons are as well.

I don't support, condone, or even feel good about Geoghan's death or the way it occured. There's no excuse for our system allowing other prisoners to do things the state doesn't allow itself to, or for those placed in authority over that system for allowing it to happen.