Do you think the United States should establish an island penal colony? One for men and one for women. Banish all those convicted for a second time of violent crimes, for life, rather than spending our hard earned tax money for cells, movies, gyms, and all the comforts of home. No provisions on the island except farming implements, ie rakes, shovels, etc. Give them seeds to grow food. Escape from the island carries the death penalty. Keep in mind we are only talking about VIOLENT 2nd offenders.

 

I think it would make sense to treat our prisoners like prisoners. Each should have a private cell with toilet and sink, and that is all. No books, no TV, no radio, no mail, no visitors. Meals served in the cell. Prison is supposed to be severe punishment. Prisoners should have no rights except for food and shelter. Death row inmates could fight gladiator style, with the winner getting to live until his next fight.

A little harsh? Maybe. When your daughter gets kidnapped, raped, and then murdered, maybe you would agree. Prison should be just that, prison.

 

Completely agree with enduringexplorer. Shouldnt be able to do anything but sit and think about what you did. Or work their Butts off. Shouldnt be able to enjoy anything about life. They lost that right when they committed the crime.



Tony Warren
Nebraska

 

I agree with Enduring also, except for one thing - can you say FREE LABOR. Put them to work doing jobs that a physical, back breaking. Make them wish they had never thought about crime. You want deterrence? Let them spend a little time doing the jobs nobody wants, physical labor that pushes them, with little sleep. I know I wouldn't want to go...

 

. Death row inmates could fight gladiator style, with the winner getting to live until his next fight.
>
>A little harsh? Maybe. When your daughter gets kidnapped,
>raped, and then murdered, maybe you would agree. Prison
>should be just that, prison.

Wow. More than a little harsh. How does this do anything to mitigate the death of the daughter above? It may make some people feel that the murderer had gotten his just comings, but after it was done, would it really make the family members feel better? Execution does provide solace that the offender will not repeat the crime but I don't think that revenge plays a prominent role in the motivation behind it. Still I don't know for sure because I am not in this position personally.

Keep in mind the Penal Colony idea is only for violent offenders, not murderers. Murderers remain in prison for either execution or, in the case of manslaughter, to do their time in solitary. The concept behind the penal colonly is permanent banishment. No cost to taxpayers.

I sometimes agree with the rot in jail, no priviledges, attitude. In other cases I am firmly in favor of the death penalty. Under no circumstances would I ever agree with torture, or cruel and unusual punishment. I maintain we, as a society, must act with the morality that is absent in the murderer.

 

Err - I don't think providing implements of any kind is called for.

Find a coral atoll with a central island in a lagoon surrounded by enough land to provide guard support and surveillance/com centers, not to mention a wall all around the perimeter.

Ensure the lagoon itself is shark infested, and air drop food once a week by helicopter. They can weave their own shacks from palm fronds, fight over shelters and food, or feed themselves to the fishes!

Seems fairly economical over all, doesn't it? Also pretty hopeless for anyone stuck there...

 

Sounds like the movie "No Escape" to me...

 

>Sounds like the movie "No Escape" to me...
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>
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Cobraxp: I gotta rent it. Who is in it? When was it made? I am familiar with Papillon but not this one.

 

Quote: Sounds like the movie "No Escape" to me...

Exactly like it and I'm pretty sure it's where they got the idea. That and "Escape from New York".

Graffe.

 

Brien -

Ray Liotta, Ernie Hudson, Lance Henrikson, Kevin Dillon

It was a pretty good movie...

Try this link:

[link:movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1800209247&cf=info&intl=us|No Escape]

 

CobraXP: Thanks. I'll check it out.

 

Come on, farming is not that bad a lifestyle. The idea of being banished to an island forced to live off the land and endure the elements does not seem like a harsh sentence...sounds like you're sending them back to the 1700's middle America or Amish country.

Prison sounds like hell to me. Let the offender(s) spend the remainder of the sentence in a jail cell(4 walls no sun)- out of society-privileges revoked. Longer sentences no parole for repeat offenders. Speed up the appeal process in capital punishment cases - reduce long term costs.

I doubt the cable bill is breaking the bank here though I do think tv is an indirect contributor to the overall problem.(subject matter i.e. violence as entertainment)

Throw those convicted of white-collar crimes on the island with the rake and seeds. Give them a chance to due an honest day's work.


Ray

 

having recently watched "The Count of Monte Cristo" (a VERY good movie IMHO) I like the idea of confinement (for those guilty as previously described)as he was confined. What was it, 13 years in a rock cell? No contact with ANYTHING from the outside world except once a day feeding and one once a day emptying his "crapper". Both done through a small opening in his cell door.
I think the ultimate punishment would be soiltary confinement, in a clean sterile, healthy cell, oh, say 10ft by 10ft. Feed the perp adequately and eliminate any means by which this individual might kill himself (but I'm not sure you can prevent someone from starving themselves to death. Except you might give them the promise of freedom after 10 or 15 years and then say "oops we lied, it was actually 25 years.") Basically keep him alive as long as possible in complete isolation from the outside world. Even go so far as to have his food delivered mechanically.
Aside from torture, which I'm still not convinced might not be appropriate in some cases, solitary confinement would be a really miserable existance.
Brian A

 

Prisons were originally designed to rehabilitate prisoners. I think we can all agree that this concept failed miserably.

On that note, I'm all for island type colonies. We spend apprx 50 grand each year to house 1 inmate, and that's about 50K a year too much in my book.

I agree, dump them on an island, and let them figure out their own type of society. It may do more for rehabilitating them than anything we could come up with anyway. Afterall, in an environment like that you pretty much HAVE to depend on each other just to survive.

However, I disagree with the 2nd time violent crime. That's too broad a blanket. You'd be banishing people, in some cases, for nothing more than simple battery.

 

im all for the idea but id like to make a few changes. why waste a perfectly good vaction spot for those of us who are'nt violent criminals? you wanna send these jerks to an island...send them to northern Greenland! escape? where the hell would they go? also, why give a violent person a sencond chance to be violent? violent crime is the worst kind and most people who comit one will do it again. another thing is to put cameras on the island so that the rest of the world and those that would be tempted to do comit a violent crime will see exactly what they go through. it would be the ultimate "survivor" show.







Read not to comdemn but to consider.