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Index:
Point
of view
Bad humans must be locked up!
What is with all the murderers, those who make me
fear?
Prisons have deterrent potential!
Prisons transform criminals into real people again!
But if there was no more punishment, people would
commit crimes, because they are bored or so.
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Point
of view:
If we say that prisons should be abolished, many people may think, what
for an absurd and impossible idea. Where would that end? Free all criminals?
Then humans would not be safe anymore. We would not have to discuss that
anyway! Oh no, we should, because freeing the criminals is not the only
alternative.
Argument:
Bad humans must be locked up!
Counterargument: Nobody was born as a criminal. Nobody was born
as anything. Life, society and the environment in which one lives made
each one, what he is. And if someone, for example, robs a bank or steals
a purse from a granny, then that is most likely because he needs or thinks
to need money. But why does he think that? That is not mainly because
he is a cash-greedy human from nature. Maybe the society, in which nothing
goes without cash, made him this way, or maybe he does not have anything
at all and wants finally to buy some of the stuff the advertising shows
him all the time. Also it is a problem in the society and the system we
live in that there are humans, who do have nothing at all and others that
have almost everything. The best method to prevent such crimes would be
of course to modify the system in such a way that nobody would have the
need for more money. The only way to do that is that everybody has the
same wealth. We would have to try to bring the people to an understanding
that it is not the most important thing to have cash. If they had everything,
which they need, then it would be fine and it would give no more crimes
of this type. Yes, some people say that some people always want more than
others, but isn't that due to the fact of steady advertising and wrong
role models?
Argument:
What is with all the murderers, those who make me fear?
Counterargument: Murderers do not kill simply just because, but
people which they are jealous of or in a big fight with. If our system
would not be so razor-sharp with the all the competition, then there would
not be so much jealousy and fights. Additionally the people would not
just crack up so easily, simply because they cannot bear the life any
longer. That happens rather frequently these days. Stressed people who
cannot achieve their targets and are driven spare all the time easily
happen to crack up and then they are labeled as mad and get sent to prison
or into the lunatic asylum.
But that is not correct. Perhaps humans should try times to find the reasons
why someone became mad and shot some people. Humans should not treat humans
like a mad person, because the whole world is mad. Humans, who broke the
law, should come into a therapy, not in the prison. Humans should be treated
in no case like criminals, but like humans. And after the therapy humans
should be left free again, so that they can prove that they can live in
the world like any other human could. In prisons nobody modifies its opinion.
At the most plans are made, how humans can be more careful next time not
to get caught. And then, if the people are free again, they have an enormous
hate on the police, on the prison attendants, on the whole world that
let them down and without any property and shelter. Hardly a prisoner
sees in the prison that its crime was not good. Thus it really does not
change!
The different reasons for murders, rapes and other violent crimes have
to be considered too. First of all it can be a fight between two or more
people that know each other, in which one cannot controll his emotions.
A crime is committed fast in such situations, but then it is usually a
"crime of passion" (see below) that will never happen again. Besides
that is it "just" a conflict between these people that should not harm
anyone else. Another reason can be the morbid desire to kill or to rape
someone. Nowadays that can be controlled with medical supervision and
medication. But that needs a certain degree of tolerance and acceptance
by the environment, because it is not easy admitting such an illness.
And it certainly does not makes it easier when prison sentences are raised.
And there are not all criminals caught, so a lot of them are free anyway.
Argument:
Prisons have deterrent potential!
Counterargument: The deterrent potential of a prison does not change
whether it is a prison sentence of one or ten years. Besides is the original
purpose of the judicial power not vengeance and requital, but justice.
And it is justice to punish someone for a, lets say housebreaking that
caused no bodily harm to anyone with physical punishment in terms of detention
or imprisonment?
There are many crimes ("crimes of passion") that took place under the
influence of drugs or medicine or the passion. A deterrent potential does
not help, because the committer would not have done the crime under normal
circumstances anyway. At that moment he did not care whether he would
get a prison or a death sentence. And if you are on drugs or medicine
you won´t stop doing the crime, simply because later you will get
punished, because you do not think about it. The problem here is more
why people take these drugs or the medicine.
Argument:
Prisons transforms criminals into real people again!
Counterargument: That is mainly wrong. A lot of "small" criminals
just started to get really criminal in prison, get new contacts and experiences.
Besides that does a prison sentence obstruct them in their future in many
ways. They get socially isolated and not seldom loose their home and family.
That is certainly not very helpful for integrating them into society.
Argument:
But if there was no more punishment, people would commit crimes, because
they are bored or so.
Counterargument: The problem is here more, why can someone be so
bored that he overcomes his inhibitions to kill, murder or steal? That
can be, because are not enough (cheap) leisure activities or because the
inhibition threshold has sank drastically. That is usually the result
of wrong and to much viewing TV, wrong role-models of the parents and
so on. To change something in this area, it ought to start with the education
of the children, to teach them that every human is equal.
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