someone just drew my attention to a rather harsh and vitriolic series of posts from someone named ‘junkfiend’ (?). i’ve read them, and i’m left a bit confused. has this person spent time in prison? it seems dangerous to hold such strong negative opinions about something that you haven’t experienced. i have never been to prison, but i do hold on to the idea that cruelty should never be knowingly practiced towards anyone, regardless of their crime.
i agree that people who are convicted of commiting crimes should be removed from general society for a while and put into prison. what i’ve always been amazed at, though, is the contradiction that malicious prison time represents.
if a criminal does something horrifying (i.e-rape, murder) we are all, understandably, outraged. but if we’re horrified by violence how can we then put that prisoner into an environment where they will be treated violently?
i, personally, am horrified by all cruelty and violence, regardless of circumstance. and i believe that there is enough historical precedence of people feeling ‘justified’ in perpetrating cruelty and violence that we should be extremely wary of feeling that way ‘justified’ ourselves.
when someone is sentenced, under our penal code, they are sentenced for a length of time, and our laws do specify that no person shall be subject to ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment. and i don’t see how anyone can think that being put into an environment that is rife with rape and violence (i.e-prison) isn’t ‘cruel and unusual’.
-moby