Quote Originally Posted by PhilosopherStoned View Post
I think that 'justice without prisons' is bullshit. However, In the US prisons are more often than not profit making operations. As profit making operations, their primary goal is profit. So references to the 'prison-industrial complex' are accurate. They are not interested in rehabilitation and many people come out of them more violent than they where when they entered. They perpetuate the problem.

So if 'prison' is taken to refer to the sort of thing that currently exists in the US then I am all for 'justice without prisons'. I would prefer some other sort of place to send violent people so that they can either be rehabilitated if at all possible or humanely separated from the general populace if not.

If prison is precisely such a place then of course 'justice without prisons' is a dubious notion.

The point is that 'punishment' is a useless concept that does more harm than good. It may deter sane people from things like murder but sane people don't murder anyways. It's the people that have been misshapen by living in an environment radically different from that which evolution created them for that become violent criminals and punishment does nothing but reinforce their sense of not belonging and the feeling that the world is against them.

The way to deal with a violent crime is to make sure that the perpetrator doesn't do it again, not to place blame and seek retribution. Retribution is neither synonymous with justice nor useful.
whoop whoop there it is
that's absolutely perfect