I generally agree, but there are exceptions to every rule. I knew a guy who killed 6 people when he was 16, including his pregnant ex girlfriend. Dude absolutely should never be allowed out.
Sure, but that sounds like the exact sort of case a parole board would deny. The author here isn’t saying we should abolish life in prison sentences for juveniles, just that they should all be able to at least apply for parole and try to convince the board that they’re no longer a danger to others.
Only takes one board that has a few idiots on it, major prison overcrowding, or him learning to play the jesus card, and he could be out on the street.
I don’t think 17 year olds who commit heinous crimes should be excused because they’re a year younger. For example, I think those kids who stole a car and purposefully ran over a biker while recording, resulting in his death, should be in jail for life. They lost their chance to participate in society.
Depends on the crime and the context. Sometimes a person’s status as a teenager has no real relevance to the crime, which is why we sometimes try minors as adults. In most of these cases, it’s quite clear the kid knew what they were doing was wrong and what the consequences would be for others.
Also, I don’t think there’s much of a difference between a 17-year-old being sentenced to live in prison vs. a 21-year-old.
I also firmly believe that some crimes are so heinous that the criminal does not deserve a second chance. The only reason I don’t support capital punishment is because human legal systems so often get their judgments wrong, and execution is a punishment you can’t take back. But that doesn’t change my opinion that some people do deserve to die for what they did. Ergo, life without parole seems a good alternative.
eh, you can’t take back 50 years of wrongful imprisonment either.
You can’t take it back, but you can at least offer them generous compensation for the government fucking up their life and also clean the slate and expunge the record.
You can’t do anything to compensate someone for a wrongfully carried out execution. I’d actually support the death sentence if we had a way to be absolutely certain we weren’t ever going to carry it out on someone wrongfully convicted, but that’s impossible.
generous compensation
Well, the chance is somewhat there, but…
I didn’t say we did a good job of it currently, but it’s possible to fix. Compensation for executing someone is impossible.
It’s a lot easier to pass a law that pays someone X$/month incarcerated in case of wrongful conviction automatically than to raise the dead.
I’m always wary of a NIMBY effect in discussions like this, because it’s always easy to say we should give someone a chance if you’re not going to be living next to them or having loved ones near them. How many of you would be alright with yourself or a loved one living closely near someone like this, as a neighbor or coworker perhaps?
Someone will have to live near them and work near them, after all. If you aren’t willing to be that someone, you have no right to put other people in that position. It’s why I don’t support parole for violent offenses. I would never feel comfortable or safe if I or a loved one were around them. I’m not going to ask someone else to do it instead so I can still feel good about showing mercy.
Is that harsh and selfish of me? Absolutely. But I see nothing wrong with putting society’s safety ahead of the freedom of someone who has committed a truly heinous act. Mercy cannot come at the cost of the innocent. If there is any doubt that a person will pose a safety risk, they should not have parole.
I work with some of these kids and, frankly, sometimes life in prison is better than letting them try and fail over and over again.
Well ok but also consider the victims though, shouldn’t they get justice?
How is ending someone else’s life justice? It’s revenge.
The victim might disagree
They would be wrong. It doesn’t do anything to change what was done. The only thing it does it makes things worse for everyone. Everyone is forced to pay for their incarceration and it removes someone from society who could contribute to it instead. It’s a burden to society, not a boon.
Easy to say if someone close to you has never been harmed, but I doubt so many victims would agree that it’s wrong. People who are victims also have a right for justice to be done on their behalf. It’s not something you can just wave away.
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What’s a solution that doesn’t do damage to others, let alone doing damage to someone who may still be redeemable? The event can’t be undone. There’s no way to change that. The outcome that does the most good should be the one used, not the one that makes you feel good because you got them back, which doesn’t help anyone. That momentary joy will be gone in time, but the suffering of either party will never be changed.
some people just shouldn’t be let back into society. But life in prison is pretty pointless to. We need to bring back penal colonies, just let the inmates run them. And I know, lots of issues with that plan, but maybe they can be figured out.
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“Most people” recognize life without parole as cruel punishment and don’t want it. Let alone for kids. Of Western European countries only the Netherlands and UK have life without parole sentences. Canada also, for the most part, does not have it.
the thing is, in countries where they treat their inmates like human beings, have the lowest levels of recividism. Just look at scandinavia.
It’s not me you need to convince ;)
where they treat their inmates like human beings,
Prison should be equally punitive and rehabilitive. Child rapists and murderers getting things like internet access, movie nights, and field trips in Scandinavia seems like just as much as an injustice to me as kids getting 20 years for selling a plant in the US.
The Netherlands does not have life without parole. Everyone gets a chance of parole after 25 years. See https://www.om.nl/documenten/vragen-en-antwoorden/wat-is-levenslange-gevangenisstraf (in Dutch)
Thanks, my information was incorrect. Then it leaves only the UK as the sole western European country with life without parole.
If you’re sixteen and decide to rape and murder a child (or anyone for that matter) I think you should still get life. You took a life and destroyed an entire family, why should you ever get a clean slate when your victims never can.
In reality I think they should just send them off to a firing squad. There are some people who just aren’t meant to exist in civilized society. Blame their upbringing, blame whatever you want, the point stands.
You seriously think someone who’s brain won’t be fully developed for another TEN YEARS, can’t possibly evolve into a better person?
I didn’t say that… I’m saying if you rape and murder someone you don’t deserve a chance to evolve into a better person. You’ve taken away another person’s chance to do anything ever. There are some things that can’t be forgiven.
Let me guess, Christian?
christian?
Why the fuck would you assume I’m retarded just because I think people shouldn’t get to TAKE A LIFE and get theirs back?
If anything the “christian” thing to do here would be forgiveness… I’m talking about NOT forgiving. Or is your default just to assume people you disagree with are christo-fascists or christians.
The biggest problem with our justice system is wrongful convictions, so I don’t support the death penalty, but if we’re speaking purely controlled hypotheticals here, and we KNOW they did it—fuck them.
I agree despite your downvotes. Prisons are for rehabilitation and punishment IMO.
In cases where someone takes a life with malicious intent, I don’t care how old they are, they deserve to live the rest their life in a cage or strapped to a chair. Cruelty to the cruel is justice just as intolerance to the intolerant is progress.
If you don’t believe in rehabilitation, the only reason prisons have to exist is punishment, and punishment for punishment sake is sadistic indulgence, not justice.
Raping and murdering someone is sadistic indulgence… punishing them for it is at least retribution if you want to argue that it’s not justice. Which I still think is a weak argument.
Their victim and their family can’t ever be made whole, so I can’t see how letting the perpetrator off could ever be justice.
I believe in rehabilitation for all but (intentional) murderers. Our prison systems are a massive problem if their purpose is for corrections like their name implies because right now, yes, they’re for punishment and often through slave labor. American prisons as they exist are sadistic indulgence, but for those who kill without remorse, I can’t think of a better fate.
