• pinkystew@reddthat.com
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    7 days ago

    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.”

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Your point would be valid if it was about possessing drugs or some other non-violent crime instead of attempted murder.

      • kandoh@reddthat.com
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        7 days ago

        He planned on torturing them first. I think it’s the whole planning and then following through on it aspect that got him life.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        6 days ago

        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.

      • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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        7 days ago

        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.

      • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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        7 days ago

        I don’t need to offer an alternative.

        It is enough to say “the current system doesn’t work for me and I want change.”

        • workerONE@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          He cracked someone’s skull open with a hammer at their house for no reason. Someone like this needs to be isolated from the rest of society. I can’t believe you use this as an example to state that you don’t believe in prison as punishment. We should be able to operate humane prisons, but segregating violent offenders protects society.

          • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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            7 days ago

            Cool so should the default solution for every fucking problem be the same solution we apply to a guy that cracked someone’s skull open with a hammer?

            I’m not saying this guy doesn’t deserve to be punished. I’m saying prison shouldn’t be the default solution for everything. People like you who defend the prison industrial complex are the reason it still exists. You are using your emotional reaction to one incident to justify a human rights crisis in your fucking backyard and it’s lazy and pathetic. Be a better person.

            • workerONE@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              You don’t know anything about me, and I never defended “the prison industrial complex” Don’t talk shit to me- you must be upset because all that shit you wrote sounds really stupid

    • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Generally I want to agree with you. We punish instead of help.

      But in this case, prison is the ideal result.

      • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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        7 days ago

        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

    • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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      7 days ago

      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.

    • treefrog@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      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.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        6 days ago

        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
      • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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        7 days ago

        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”.

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 days ago

      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.

      • pinkystew@reddthat.com
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        7 days ago

        correct but we use the “attempted murder solution” on everything, which is the problem.

          • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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            6 days ago

            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
    • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      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.