I personally believe that crime is just another illness that may be treated with a medicine some day. Actually I may have first heard this idea in the Star Trek: TOS episode "Dagger Of The Mind". Back then, there was already a lot of progress in the area of prisoners' rights and rehabilitation. Starting around the time of George Washington and the French Revolution actually. FWIW, some people now think that returning to making rehabilitation the top priority in the US would cost too much. There's just too many people locked away. It's cheaper to just warehouse them. Anyways, here are some quotes from that episode. "A cage is a cage, Jim." —Dagger Of The Mind, Dr. McCoy, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "Interesting. Your Earth people glorify organized violence for forty centuries, but you imprison those who employ it privately." —Dagger Of The Mind, Mr. Spock, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "Thank you, Captain. Welcome to Devil's Island, Doctor." —Dagger Of The Mind, Dr. Adams, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "I believe regulations call for me to check my weapon." "No, no. That won't be necessary in your case, Captain. Just keep it out of sight, hmm? I know you people feel as naked without a weapon as we do without a medikit." —Dagger Of The Mind, Capt. Kirk and Dr. Adams, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "Before you came here?" "I was another person. Malignant, hateful." "May I ask what crime you committed?" "Does it matter? That person no longer exists." —Dagger Of The Mind, Capt. Kirk and Lethe, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "Where there is no emotion, there is no motive for violence." —Dagger Of The Mind, Mr. Spock, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "I want asylum." "At gunpoint?" —Dagger Of The Mind, Dr. Van Gelder and Capt. Kirk, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "May we never find space so vast, planets so cold, heart and mind so empty that, that we cannot fill them with love and warmth." —Dagger Of The Mind, Dr. Adams, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "I have no desire to damage my brain. Can this be handled with reasonable safety—yes or no?" —Dagger Of The Mind, Capt. Kirk, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966. "It's hard to believe that a man could die of loneliness." "Not when you've sat in that room." —Dagger Of The Mind, Dr. McCoy and Capt. Kirk, Stardate: 2715.1, Original Airdate: November 3, 1966.
