Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:29 pm
I'm talking about backing it up with quotes from this thread, not the other one.cxt wrote: I already "backed them up" BTW months ago on the orginal thread.
More effective, or more cost-effective? There's a big difference.In any case, your (AGAIN) ignoring the context........I'm positing that there may be more effective ways of controlling violent crimnals than catering to their whims.
The main reason I argue cost-effectiveness on these boards is because that's all many people seem to care about. Arguments relying on things like mercy or sympathy are just ridiculed as liberal weakness. All anybody wants to hear about is what is cheapest for them. So, where applicable, I argue on the terms that people will listen to. You yourself have made the argument "Why should I pay for this scumbag's life of luxury in prison?" many times in this thread. Specifically from you I anticipate a post about how I'm so cruel and mean to the victims and that kindness to the cruel is cruelty to the kind. That argument is why I focused on the money aspect, despite the fact that (as you point out) the money issue isn't really important to me.
But truthfully, I believe that our prison system is incredibly corrupt and inhumane and cutting off DVD privileges really seems completely absurd. I mean, these people go in for selling someone a bag of marijuana and maybe end up having their teeth knocked out so that their cell-mates can have an easier time forcing oral sex on them. If you really want to talk about prison conditions and how to improve them that's one thing, but your first comment about prison situations was to save money by not buying DVDs.
If you ask me our society is excessively punitive already. We have sex registries so that teenage kids having consentual sex can live in constant fear and harassment forever because their name goes on from sex offender lists. We have tons of people who love to hear about terrorists being tortured, who think "pound me in the ass prison" is just the height of justice and generally just love it when anyone they can identify as a "bad guy" has something terrible happen to him.
If you want to talk about contradiction, what about the fact that on the one hand you're now saying you care about prison conditions, but your answer to what to do with people abusing welfare is to punish them harshly and save money by taking away DVDs? And your solution to making prisons better is to solitary confinement, medical comas and taking away weight rooms? Here's my take: removing weight rooms will do nothing positive. Solitary confinement drives people quite literally insane and the idea of putting prisoners into medical comas would be laughable if you weren't serious.
It would be interesting to hear Rory weigh in on this, but I doubt he'd waste his time.