Should we allow prisoners to kill themselves? (interview, injection, statistics)
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The prisoner Sweat who is only 35 will be living out the rest of his days in a cell that is 105 square feet. He will be in that cell for 23 hours a day and he is on suicide watch.
Facing such conditions I think many would consider ending their lives which might not be a bad idea for the rest of us since it would save the taxpayers piles of money,, free up time for the guards to do other duties, free up a spot for someone else to sit in and possibly give the victims family some relief.
Why not give the prisoner some rope or other means to end his life? How about a bottle of poison?
Another young man facing a similar sentence for the rest of his life is the Boston Marathon bomber.
Would it really be that terrible if some of these death row or lifers be given the opportunity to end their lives? Would the public feel they were somehow being robbed of justice?
I support people's right to their own life. If they wish to die on their own terms, and harm no one else while doing so, they should have that right and no government should have the authority to take it.
With that said, I think a better solution would be a change in the justice system. I'm opposed to the concept of life without parole. My thinking is that anyone sentences to that is going to have absolutely no incentive to stop whatever behavior led them to that sentence. Meaning, a murder would have no problem killing again, even if that's just restricted to other inmates or prison staff.
I think we'd be better off doing what Norway does. 20 year max sentence, requiring evaluation for release, and if deemed unsuitable, the sentence can be extended. The process repeats itself. Meaning that mass murderer who shot up a mall (can't think of his name), despite being sentences to 21 years, is very unlikely to be out of prison ever. But that glimmer of hope will still exist; not necessarily for people who commit such a crime, but for others who get that sentence.
Americans love throwing people in jail, which is quite sad for the land of the free. In Europe, a 10 year sentence is considered a long time and frankly, I tend to agree. Prison should be efficient. Repair the bad behavior and teach them some basic skills so they can survive in the real world that way tax payers aren't paying for their long prison sentences that 60% of the time will end up with them coming back after release. It's stupid and wasteful and clearly inefficient with a 60% recidivism (if you're skeptical of Norway, they have a 20% recidivism which is the lowest in the world).
But, while I don't condone taking one's own life, I think people should have the right to do so.
Scandinavia-ize prison instead. Make it more humane. The average life expectancy of a NYS prison guard is something like 57 (I'm quoting a Hamilton College English professor on this one; might be off by plus or minus a couple years). Status quo is lose-lose for society; making it err more on the side of barbarism would worsen matters.
I mean, I'm reluctantly pro-suicide for all citizens, but I reject your (conservative-minded, I know, from other posts) suggestion that suicide be promoted amongst prisoners, as that is suggested out of the spirit of further marginalizing people that have already been screwed by life circumstances.
No but I support the death penalty. Their victims had no choice but to endure what they had to endure, no easy outs. Now, what I wonder in conjunction with this is "Are you against the death penalty yet would allow the prisoner to be provided medication or other means to kill themselves?" The death penalty would keep them from having to endure the hardship of being confined and we certainly don't want them to suffer unnecessarily. I guess we could base this on the compassion they showed their victim.
Allowing someone to commit suicide? There are so many ways for the creative and determined that this just doesn't make sense.
Richard Matt, the prisoner from the Buffalo area who was killed, was said by his son (who was interviewed by several media outlets here in Buffalo of late) to be a genius. Take that for what it's worth. Sweat, the guy who's going back to jail, killed a county sheriff when he was young (18ish) and after having robbed some guns in Pennsylvania if I remember the story correctly. I was always kind of perversely rooting for these guys from afar. The line between them and the average moron we encounter every day in "real life" is not as much as you might think.
The problem is our system.
It costs significantly more to execute some-one then to keep em in a cage.
As a country we imprison allot of our citizens, more so then other countries, looking at our prison statistics we are either a country of criminals or we have run away laws (where people go to prison over B.S.).
Is this really more humane then lethal injection ?
"only 35 will be living out the rest of his days in a cell that is 105 square feet. He will be in that cell for 23 hours a day and he is on suicide watch. "
The prisoner Sweat who is only 35 will be living out the rest of his days in a cell that is 105 square feet. He will be in that cell for 23 hours a day and he is on suicide watch.
Facing such conditions I think many would consider ending their lives which might not be a bad idea for the rest of us since it would save the taxpayers piles of money,, free up time for the guards to do other duties, free up a spot for someone else to sit in and possibly give the victims family some relief.
Why not give the prisoner some rope or other means to end his life? How about a bottle of poison?
Another young man facing a similar sentence for the rest of his life is the Boston Marathon bomber.
Would it really be that terrible if some of these death row or lifers be given the opportunity to end their lives? Would the public feel they were somehow being robbed of justice?
No - if you're given a certain length of sentence you don't get to decide to shorten it by offing yourself - as a criminal you've forfeited that right. If you EARN a shorter sentence with good behavior, okay. BTW - I don't believe in the death penalty but I do support assisted suicide.
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I guess we could base this on the compassion they showed their victim.
