Message #11217

[yankeestarbuck]

First off, Prison life is not easy.  Oz, on HBO and "The Shawshank Redemption" were pretty pictures of life filled with daily violence, rape, and murder. This is not an exageration.  Why should we teach the criminals right from wrong when it was their parents duty in the first place to do that?



I am certainly not against the death penalty.  I have walked the line of death too many times, by the hand of illness and others, to think that life is precious gift and that those who have no regard for it do not deserve it.  That said, the idea that "changing the system" will reduce crime is rediculous and simplisticly utopic in its idea.  Hamurabi had a code, posted it in the town sqaure, publicly instituted the punishments (which meant cutting off a hand for stealing) and that did not stop the human machine from doing the things we call crimes.  Bring back chain gangs, absolutely.  But most convicts work daily.  So they are working, but that money either goes to their families (some states do that) or for commissary items in addition to their daily fare.  And they get paid at a wage incredibly lower than minimum wage.  That $9.50 one poster was making is a weekly salary in some cases.



My point, anger and fear doesn't solve this issue.  Looking at the situation and learning about the specifics will.  I think we're focusing on the wrong thing.  All the money that we spend giving the people on death row all their appeals should be spent improving the educational system, the social services system and the overall child care ifrastructure of the country.  We make our own monsters.  These bad people have to come from somewhere and any mother or rational person who has looked into the eyes of a happy, healthy, beautiful baby knows that evil isn't born, it's created.