Prison is our fucking answer to everything. No house? Prison. Said something bad? Prison. Had a bad month and hit somebody? Prison. Prison. Prison.
We lean on it as a convenient one-stop solution when we could instead do work to rehabilitate people, fix the problem, or prevent the problem from happening. The reason our prisons are overflowing is because no one is stepping up and saying, “maybe prison shouldn’t be our answer to every single societal problem.”
He wasn’t convicted of Attempted Murder. He was convicted of:
Federal:30 years
Kidnapping
First-degree burglary
False imprisonment of an elder
State:Life without parole
Aggravated kidnapping resulting in bodily harm
False imprisonment of an elder or dependent adult
Threatening family of public officials
First degree residential burglary
Preventing or dissuading a witness by force or threat
Serious crimes for certain, but for someone with no prior violent convictions for 42 years, and clear mental health issues, life imprisonment is nothing more than throwing a person away because we lack the compassion to offer an actual functioning correctional system with mental health care.
As a prison reformist, I strongly oppose this sentence.
stop saying “prison should exist because of this one case”
there will always be extreme cases that need to be handled differently from the default setting. but the default setting should not be prison, it should be rehabilitation.
It wasn’t deliberate. I said, “the default setting should not be prison” and you replied “Yes, that is what the default should be.” so I read it as contrary. So I appreciate your response
Not for every problem, but if you’re physically dangerous there’s not many better solutions. We need preventive measures so fewer people end up in that state, but you can’t prevent away ongoing violence.
Prison or a psych ward should absolutely be the answer to someone trying to kill a stranger with a hammer because of what they heard on radio/TV. I don’t care how bad someone’s month was if they’re trying to kill me.
I’m not saying separation dangerous people from society is a bad one.
I’m saying prison shouldn’t be the default solution for every offense.
The USA has the highest number and percentage of incarcerated people anywhere in the world because everyone’s kneejerk response is, “but we need it for dangerous murderers!” instead of “it’s a human rights crisis that we’re allowing to happen in our backyards and we’re choosing to allow it to happen instead of doing the hard work of brainstorming and building an effective alternative”.
I agree with you about prison not being a panacea for criminal / violent behavior.
When given the chance to address the court prior to his sentencing, DePape, dressed in prison orange and with his brown hair in a ponytail, spoke at length about Sept. 11 being an inside job, his ex-wife being replaced by a body double, and his government-provided attorneys conspiring against him.
“I’m a psychic,” DePape told the court, reading from sheets of paper. “The more I meditate, the more psychic I get.”
While I don’t think that DePape should be released into the public, it sounds like some sort of psychiatric facility would be more appropriate for him. Ignoring mental health issues is not going to make them go away and maybe if he and others like him were put someplace where he could be observed then we, as a society, may be able to put some policies in place to address future potential dangers before they culminate in violence.
Prison is our fucking answer to everything. No house? Prison. Said something bad? Prison. Had a bad month and hit somebody? Prison. Prison. Prison.
We lean on it as a convenient one-stop solution when we could instead do work to rehabilitate people, fix the problem, or prevent the problem from happening. The reason our prisons are overflowing is because no one is stepping up and saying, “maybe prison shouldn’t be our answer to every single societal problem.”
Your point would be valid if it was about possessing drugs or some other non-violent crime instead of attempted murder.
He planned on torturing them first. I think it’s the whole planning and then following through on it aspect that got him life.
He wasn’t convicted of Attempted Murder. He was convicted of:
Federal: 30 years
State: Life without parole
Serious crimes for certain, but for someone with no prior violent convictions for 42 years, and clear mental health issues, life imprisonment is nothing more than throwing a person away because we lack the compassion to offer an actual functioning correctional system with mental health care.
As a prison reformist, I strongly oppose this sentence.
stop saying “prison should exist because of this one case”
there will always be extreme cases that need to be handled differently from the default setting. but the default setting should not be prison, it should be rehabilitation.
Yes, that is what the default should be.
This is not a default case and he should be incarcerated even if the system was perfect.
Default setting should be prison? For marijuana possession?
https://www.mpp.org/policy/federal/how-many-federal-marijuana-prisoners-are-there/#:~:text=For instance%2C a report by,and 10%2C000 in federal facilities).
For fucking getting an abortion???
Prison should not be the default setting for anything my dude.
Are you intentionally misreading my posts?
I was agreeing with you that rehabilitation should be the default, and pointing out attempted murder is not the default.
Got it, thank you for clarifying.
It wasn’t deliberate. I said, “the default setting should not be prison” and you replied “Yes, that is what the default should be.” so I read it as contrary. So I appreciate your response
Yeah make them pay a fine
How much should attempted murder cost anyway?
Ten dollars?
Generally I want to agree with you. We punish instead of help.
But in this case, prison is the ideal result.
didn’t want to get side tracked by this one case
but getting hit with a bus was the ideas result for this guy lol
Not for every problem, but if you’re physically dangerous there’s not many better solutions. We need preventive measures so fewer people end up in that state, but you can’t prevent away ongoing violence.
Prison or a psych ward should absolutely be the answer to someone trying to kill a stranger with a hammer because of what they heard on radio/TV. I don’t care how bad someone’s month was if they’re trying to kill me.
correct but we use the “attempted murder solution” on everything, which is the problem.
Seems unrelated to a post about literal attempted murder??
He’s in prison. My comment was about prison. Media literacy matters.
He wasn’t convicted of Attempted Murder. He was convicted of:
Federal: 30 years
State: Life without parole
Do you think he wasn’t trying to kill him? What people are charged with and what actually happened don’t always overlap.
It may not be the answer to every problem but it seems like a pretty good solution for somebody that attempted to murder somebody.
And I’ve actually been in prison for nonviolent offenses. That doesn’t mean the whole idea of separating dangerous people from society is a bad one.
I’m not saying separation dangerous people from society is a bad one.
I’m saying prison shouldn’t be the default solution for every offense.
The USA has the highest number and percentage of incarcerated people anywhere in the world because everyone’s kneejerk response is, “but we need it for dangerous murderers!” instead of “it’s a human rights crisis that we’re allowing to happen in our backyards and we’re choosing to allow it to happen instead of doing the hard work of brainstorming and building an effective alternative”.
He wasn’t convicted of Attempted Murder. He was convicted of:
Federal: 30 years
State: Life without parole
Thanks for the correction
I agree with you about prison not being a panacea for criminal / violent behavior.
While I don’t think that DePape should be released into the public, it sounds like some sort of psychiatric facility would be more appropriate for him. Ignoring mental health issues is not going to make them go away and maybe if he and others like him were put someplace where he could be observed then we, as a society, may be able to put some policies in place to address future potential dangers before they culminate in violence.