Horrifying gang rape & assault on mother & son

[9th Engineer]

I think you're misinterpreting that image cicero, that's a screencap from the movie Minority Report. If you haven't seen it, the prisons of the future are actually something like cryostasis. The tubes feed, bath, and monitor the health of inmates while they are in a comatose-like state. Special suits also keep their bodies from withering away due to lack of movement. It's all futuretech, but it was one of the first things that got me thinking about alternative prison types.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by 9th Engineer

the prisons of the future are actually something like cryostasis. The tubes feed, bath, and monitor the health of inmates while they are in a comatose-like state.

What's the point of that? From the prisoner's point of view, they climb into the tank, sleep a bit, and then they climb out again and are set free. They don't experience the loss of freedom or the loss of time. There's little punishment there. Sure, society will benefit because the dangerous prisoners are kept out of society, but if the prisoners will be released again, there's no punishment component. Also no rehabilitation.

The prisons of the future should prepare the prisoner to be released back into society and give that prisoner the tools to succeed once that happens.

[9th Engineer]

I should have prefaced the statement about prisons of the future with 'in the movie'. They did say something in the movie about stasis being 'like a 20 year nightmare', but you're right in that it does seem to lack a component of punishment. Then again, most of our sentences now are cut very short because of a lack of space. If you ended up waking up 15 years older for committing a burglary it might have more of an impact then you'd think. The 'punishment' would be sort of like society denying the prisoner an enormous chunk of his or her life. But again, no rehabilitation (not that the current system does it anyway).

[glatt]

Oh, I know we are talking about "in the movie" but the movie had the freedom to come up with a magical solution to the prison situation we have today, and in that magic, they found no room for preparing the prisoners to return to society. It's kind of telling that they gave so little thought to that, just like the system today gives so little thought to it. From a purely practical perspective, it's in society's best interests to make that the number one priority of the prison system for any prisoners who will eventually go free.

[Radar]

Originally Posted by glatt

What's the point of that? From the prisoner's point of view, they climb into the tank, sleep a bit, and then they climb out again and are set free. They don't experience the loss of freedom or the loss of time. There's little punishment there. Sure, society will benefit because the dangerous prisoners are kept out of society, but if the prisoners will be released again, there's no punishment component. Also no rehabilitation.

The prisons of the future should prepare the prisoner to be released back into society and give that prisoner the tools to succeed once that happens.

You wake up and everyone you know is either really old or dead. You can't communicate well, have no cultural references, etc. and if yourj brain were active the whole time, it would really suck.

[jinx]

Originally Posted by glatt

The prisons of the future should prepare the prisoner to be released back into society and give that prisoner the tools to succeed once that happens.

How would they do that? Specifically.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by jinx

How would they do that? Specifically.

I don't know. But we were talking in terms of a sf movie that takes place in the future, so maybe if they adjusted the tachyon pulses so they were out of phase with the nanotube delivery system, the pulses could stimulate the neocortex of the prisoners and cause a behavioral modification. Something like that.

If we were to talk about the prison system today, I'm still no expert, but I would start by separating the violent criminals from the rest, and then put the rest in a vocational education program. A substance abuse program would probably be a good idea for most as well. The violent ones are a little trickier. They shouldn't be released back into society if they are still violent. If that means throwing away the key, then so be it. But even the violent ones should have an attempt made to rehabilitate them. That might mean talk therapy while in prison or some other therapy to try to straighten them out followed by a vocational training once they are no longer violent. We spend enough money per prisoner already. Spending a bunch more to rehabilitate them might just lower the recidivism rate down to the point where we would save money in the long run.