LogFAQs > #900014675

VioletZer0 posted...

Why? They're bad people who cares?

People with a conscience.

I mean, what are you trying to do with this? Who does this torture help?

Really, if you don't already understand why torture is bad, you're probably beyond my help.

VioletZer0 posted...

You're supposed to rehabilitate yourself. It's not the state's job to mommy you.

I mean, if you want to keep paying enormous tax bills to house these people in prisons when they keep committing crimes over and over and over again because you're putting the same people in the same situations with zero training on how they can handle themselves better and are shocked when it doesn't work out... Well, you do you, I guess.

Me? I prefer more accountability in how my tax dollars get spent. The US prison system - one of the most punishment-centric in the modern world - has, not coincidentally, one of the highest recidivism rates. About 75% of US prisoners reoffend within 5 years of being released. I mean, think about that - you're paying between $30k and $60k a year, on average, to lock these people up and "fix them", and for every four that leave, three of them come back. That's fucking ridiculous. If your business had a failure rate of 75%, you'd be bankrupt within a year; if any other government program wasted 75% of its money, heads would roll. But no, because this is prisons and people are so wrapped up in their lizard-brain emotions of vengeance and righteous indignation (and, apparently, a willingness to commit flagrant human rights violations, if this topic is any indication), this is the way we're doing things.

Contrast Norway, which has dropped its recidivism rate to 20%. They're actually having to close down prisons right now because the prisoner population has dropped so low they're downsizing their facilities. All by focusing on rehabilitation instead of punishment. And the fantastic part is everyone wins! The convict gets a second chance at life, society gets a productive worker added to the labour pool, and the taxpayers get less tax dollars thrown away on making people sit in a concrete room all day. Fucking sign me up.
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Kill 1 man: You are a murderer. Kill 10 men: You are a monster.
Kill 100 men: You are a hero. Kill 10,000 men, you are a conqueror!