Countries Have Outlawed Life Imprisonment.

Countries that have outlawed life imprisonment:

Brazil
Bolivia
Cape Verde
Colombia
Costa Rica
East Timor
El Salvador
Mozambique
Nicaragua
São Tomé and Príncipe
Venezuela
Andorra
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Colombia
Mongolia
Croatia
Iceland (in practice)
Liechtenstein (in practice)
Mexico (in most of their states)
Monaco (in practice)
Montenegro
Norway
Spain
San Marino
Portugal (Portugal's constitution prohibits indefinite sentences, and its maximum penalty is 25 years.)

Google AI.

 

And your point would be??

 

AGAIN: WHAT IS YOUR POINT? DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD THING?

 

Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic, or meant something else.

Yes, I think it is a very good idea. It is the trend of human rights and human progress. It is the best thing for all countries. And hopefully soon, life imprisonment will become a thing of the past like torture and the death penalty.

 

So, let's see if I have this right: No life sentences for example--A man rapes and kills a child. Or someone kills a whole family. Or shoots up a school and kills a bunch of 1st or second graders. Etc,etc,etc.

Now, in your other post you said it would be right to end the death penalty. OK. So you advocate for no death penalty and no life sentences. Do I have your positions stated correctly?

So what sentences should those I mentioned in my first statement receive? If they can"t be sentenced to life and they can"t be sentenced to death--when will / should they be getting back out into society??

And why should they?

 

Anyways. I am trying figure out they handle that in other societies, people who are still a risk. I think they are kept on a mental health hold then. Those can be lifelong and there's no human rights abuse if it's justified and the person is kept in a hospital or residential-type setting, instead of a prison or jail holding cell.

And maybe someday we can just treat all crime like a disease. Like Gandhi said

"All criminals should be treated as patients and the jails should be hospitals admitting this class of patients for treatment and cure. No one commits crime for the fun of it. It is a sign of a diseased mind."

Actually, the turning point in my views (which tended to be more more law and order, like most Americans) came around 1994 when I used to read a British tabloid in a local book store. There was basically no internet then, nor ebooks, Google, etc. And it was interesting because it was from an ultra-conservative perspective, like most UK tabloids. It said prison was a last resort for crimes and repeat offenders. And looking into the cause of crime and investing in prevention made a lot more sense than locking people up and throwing away the key, like we were doing in the US at the time with Clinton and his three strikes law.

 

“I believe life imprisonment is far worse than the death penalty.”

Nick Yarris.

“Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo - obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.”

Angela Davis.

“Imprisonment, as it exists today, is a worse crime than any of those committed by its victims.”

George Bernard Shaw.

“Imprisonment is as irrevocable as death.”

George Bernard Shaw.

“Imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of our social problems.”

Angela Davis.

“The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.”

Alexander Hamilton.

“I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in some places, and should be. We really need a re-examination of our entire policy on imprisonment...Our imprisonment policies are counterproductive.”

William J. Clinton.

“If you want to know how many prison cells to build, look at the number of third graders who can't read.”

Mary Landrieu.

“Prisons, far from providing a path to redemption, often exacerbate the very issues they aim to resolve.”

Rove Monteux.

“Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo - obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.”

Angela Davis.

“All emphasis in American prisons is on punishment, retribution, and disparagement, and almost none is on rehabilitation.”

Conrad Black.

“Solitary confinement is too terrible a punishment to inflict on any human being, no matter what his crime. Hardened criminals in the men's prisons, it is said, often beg for the lash instead.”

Emmeline Pankhurst.

“Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons.”

Richard Wright.

“People with mental illnesses are dying on our streets. More than 350,000 are in jails and prisons. Most are people whose only real crime is they got sick.”

Pete Earley.

“Older prisoners are more expensive for prisons to house because they tend to require more health care over time.”

Clint Smith.

“Probation is a less-well-known branch of our justice system, compared with, say, police and prisons, but that doesn't make it any less important. Hundreds of thousands of offenders each year are rehabilitated back into society by probation, which is crucial for the public's safety.”

Sadiq Khan.

“The only dead bodies from marijuana are in the prisons and at the hands of the police. This is ridiculous.”

Jack Herer.

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

Nelson Mandela.

 

And just to make clear my view of current justice systems and their purpose (I might as well put it here). Back in street law class in HS we were told the four classical reasons of punishment in justice systems were retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabitation. Imprisonment and the death penalty have been claimed as the reason for all of them (except the last one, as our teacher once jokingly pointed out). I think we need the last three still, because society is imperfect and so are governments and government's institutions. But I would put it in reverse order of importance. Rehabitation, incapacitation and only deterrence last.

 

And to add what I've been posting here for years about what is wrong with human legal systems (I might as well put it here than start another thread) is something called moral luck. Moral luck, that the outcome of your actions affects the seriousness of the penalty you face. Utilitarians often bring this up to show what is wrong with other moral systems. And for three decades now I have been very skeptical about it, along with all the things I was taught growing up. And the western and common law legal system in general.

I think all of the world's legal systems are flawed and do more harm than good. They are cruel and they are meant to use pain and harm to cure pain and harm. Also I think it's a good idea to not only reform the legal system like I just said above but to do away with life sentences in prison, like I've already talked about. Because everyone life is worth saving and everyone deserves a second chance.

 

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"Everyone deserves a second chance" you say. So what happens when someone who raped a child is let out of prison and does the same thing again? Do they deserve a third, and fourth chance, ad infinitem?

Oh, and what about their victims? They didn't get a second chance to be un-raped did they? No, their lives have been irreparably damaged, and for them it is a life sentence, with no reprieve or parole.

 

Some "people " need to be caged until they die or put to death soon after being convicted of killing others.

 

I don’t want people in prison for life for drugs or some dumb shit but sex predators or murders lock them up for ever or kill them.

 

Those motherfuckers DESERVE TO DIE!!!!!!!!!

 

Like I said before, we always agree on that. Thousands of years ago people thought criminals deserved to be crucified, in the Middle Ages people deserved to be burned at the stake, even by George Washington's time they had people branded and drawn and quartered. Up until recently the chain gang was still used. And I just read whippings or beatings were the official punishments until 1938 and 1952 in Baltimore and Delaware.. No one ever doubts at the time it was justified or that they deserved it. Until years later, when people realize how wrong it all was.

 

Whole life terms should always be seen as a last resort, but for the types of people you mentioned I cannot see an alternative that would not put decent everyday people at risk.

 

My view is that imprisonment is partly punishment, for the perpetrators, and partly protection for the rest of us. Prison should also be a place of rehabilitation.
I kind of understand the knee jerk reaction to crimes that a lot of people get, and the desire to see them punished, but I don’t happen to have those feelings myself. Random people hurt random people, and I’m happy to see the law take its course, and it’s none of my business. It’s not personal - so I don’t take it personally. If it was personal - someone I love being hurt - that’s a whole different thing, in my view. I’d probably want to take the law into my own hands. And I know that would be wrong!
I think the punishment of crime should be more protection focussed, rather than punishment focussed. I think life sentences should be a last resort, and I can’t agree with the death penalty, ever. If killing is wrong - then all killing is wrong..
I think baying for blood, when you’ve no personal connection to a case is fucking weird!