Death Penalty and Deterring Crime

elSicomoro · 06-20-2001, 08:38 AM

The prisons in this country are already death arenas...

Since being out of work, I've had WAY too much time on my hands to watch Court TV and The Learning Channel. Court TV had a great story on the Marion State Prison--the first Supermax prison in this country. (Driving by it on I-57 in southern Illinois gives you that queasy feeling.) When the Federal Government first made it a Supermax, things inside were incredibly lax. Then two guards were killed in one day in 1983 (not to mention, the prison was the site of an infamous attempted jailbreak--that's another story). A man convicted of killing one of the guards was sent to Leavenworth, where a special cell was created in the lower levels of the prison. The man is not allowed any human contact (other than a guard bringing his meal I assume), has his lights on 24 hours a day, and has not been heard from in 10 years! Marion then went to lockup 23 hours a day...it is generally considered the toughest prison in America.

As a whole, I do not support the death penalty; however, I make an exception for Mr. McVeigh. The man killed 168 absolutely innocent people as a form of government protest. That's just wrong. There are far better things he could have done. And continuing to insist that the victims' deaths were justifiable...for me, that man was begging to be killed. But in general, the whole "eye for an eye" b.s. is just that--b.s. Leave that sorta thing to the fundamentalist Bible thumpers. To me, being locked up for the rest of your life, particularly at Marion, serves well. Think about it...you are by yourself 23 hours a day, and under intense surveillance by guards...little contact with others. That right there is enough to drive you insane. Works for me. :-)

[Edited by sycamore on 06-20-2001 at 09:42 AM]

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06-20-2001, 08:38 AM	#9
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	The prisons in this country are already death arenas... Since being out of work, I've had WAY too much time on my hands to watch Court TV and The Learning Channel. Court TV had a great story on the Marion State Prison--the first Supermax prison in this country. (Driving by it on I-57 in southern Illinois gives you that queasy feeling.) When the Federal Government first made it a Supermax, things inside were incredibly lax. Then two guards were killed in one day in 1983 (not to mention, the prison was the site of an infamous attempted jailbreak--that's another story). A man convicted of killing one of the guards was sent to Leavenworth, where a special cell was created in the lower levels of the prison. The man is not allowed any human contact (other than a guard bringing his meal I assume), has his lights on 24 hours a day, and has not been heard from in 10 years! Marion then went to lockup 23 hours a day...it is generally considered the toughest prison in America. As a whole, I do not support the death penalty; however, I make an exception for Mr. McVeigh. The man killed 168 absolutely innocent people as a form of government protest. That's just wrong. There are far better things he could have done. And continuing to insist that the victims' deaths were justifiable...for me, that man was begging to be killed. But in general, the whole "eye for an eye" b.s. is just that--b.s. Leave that sorta thing to the fundamentalist Bible thumpers. To me, being locked up for the rest of your life, particularly at Marion, serves well. Think about it...you are by yourself 23 hours a day, and under intense surveillance by guards...little contact with others. That right there is enough to drive you insane. Works for me. :-) [Edited by sycamore on 06-20-2001 at 09:42 AM]

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