Metsfanmax wrote:thegreekdog wrote:Metsfanmax wrote:thegreekdog wrote:Retributive justice doesn't solve crime problems, so to that extent I agree with you. Assuming this person is mentally handicapped in some way, I would think his "punishment" would be rehabilitation only. Why was it not just that? In other words, he's either clinically handicapped such that he belongs in a mental institution until rehabilitated or dead or he's not clinically handicapped and he needs to be locked up so that he cannot commit further crimes. Instead, he's being locked up for some length of time, presumably to protect society, and then maybe will go into a mental institution.
Well, Norway has embraced this approach to some extent. For example, read about the Halden Prison sometime; it is based on the idea that prison can be just as much about rehabilitation and treating prisoners humanely as it is about protecting society.
But in the case of the most violent and dangerous criminals like Breivik, I can understand why the government may be reluctant to give him such freedoms. Nevertheless, at the very least the point is about protecting society and not about punishing the criminal. That's why life in prison is counter-productive; it's an admission that the person has no hope of ever rejoining society, and in general the Norwegian justice system is more forward-thinking than that. The end result will probably be the same in the case of Breivik, but in the myriad cases that are much less severe, I think the difference is profound.
Yeah, that would work for me. A rehabilitation/prison facility would be most appropriate. It won't happen in the US because it would be too expensive (presumably), but probably a good idea here as well.
It would be a good start, but the US has much more severe problems with its prison system. The reason it would be so expensive is because of the sheer number of people we imprison, and we can cut that down through a combination of decriminalization of non-violent acts like drug usage, and targeted support for disadvantaged areas where people are dispropotionately represented in the prison population. It's possible in Norway precisely because their violent crime rate is so low.
Cracking down on judges and law enforcement getting money from privately managed prisons for each person they put behind bars would also help a lot. A few weeks ago I read about yet another case in the USA where children were being sent to prison for things I'm not sure were even misdemeanors. IIRC the judge responsible for all the decisions had been receiving kickbacks for years and even held a stake in the prison that was profiting from it.
