Replace prison sentences with a pill instead? (Discuss)

[GUNWOUNDS]

was watching a show on TV where prisoners were testing out an experimental drug that aged their bodies in a matter of days or weeks.

What this drug's purpose was for is the following......

If you have a 20 year prison sentence ... the scientists will give you enough of the drug to age your body 20 years... then you will be released back into society as a free man.

It is designed to free up prison space or eliminate the need for it (except for those with life sentence plus no parole or death row)

So the question is this...

As a citizen of your country would you vote "Yes" on this procedure?

and

AS a prison inmate would you accept this alternative to serving prison time?

basically prison sentences age your body and take away part of your life...... IF a drug could age your body and reduce your lifespan (effectively taking away a part of your life)

[Cyborg]

I think that's kind of stupid.

People stay in prison to not be able to commit crime. It's not like "because you did what you did, you will lose 20 years of your life span", but rather "because of what you did, we cannot trust you for 20 years. You will have to stay in a prison where you can not harm others."

I reckon they won't change mentally during this process?

[leo]

It's much more harsh than prison, I think.

[ExSPlug]

As a citizen of your country would you vote "Yes" on this procedure?

Depending on what criminals is it used on...rape, homicide, etc...yes. And the age of the criminal is an issue. A guy who's 18 punished for 20 years imprisonment...not too useful on him.

and

AS a prison inmate would you accept this alternative to serving prison time?

Hell NO! What if I got my prison time reduced later on...can you give me back my lost years?

[nemafakei]

That's silly. It just means they'll spend relatively more of their life as dependants (retired or unable to work if they wanted to), and it's not reversible - meaning that if your case was overturned a year later, you'd have lost 19 years more than if you'd had the prison sentence.

Moreover, as Cyborg says, it is simply a punishment - it does not protect society for the duration (if criminals, they may have nothing to do with retirement age, so the case of making them infirm and unable to behave destructively is weakened by the fact that they will likely need to keep breaking the law for money).

It's absurd and pointless, and I would oppose it were I in any position.

[danielsh]

The goal of a prison should be rehabilitation, not punishment.  Therefore, I would vote "No" to this, because it does nothing to assist an inmate in becoming a functioning member of society.

As an inmate, I would probably ask for this instead of prison time.  Maybe it'll be an option by the time you've had me put in a camp.

[TMA_1]

I agree. the prison system in america is overcrowded and has many problems indeed. It still SHOULD be about rehabilitation, and not punishment. This kind of idea is a torture, and shouldnt even be thought of. It is demented and sick in my opinion.

Plus it just sounds fake. I have never heard of a drug that can do that, and I think it is just silly. if it does exist though than I think that if it becomes more wide spread it should be dealt with by the international community, and should be made universally illegal.

[GUNWOUNDS]

I think that's kind of stupid.

People stay in prison to not be able to commit crime. It's not like "because you did what you did, you will lose 20 years of your life span", but rather "because of what you did, we cannot trust you for 20 years. You will have to stay in a prison where you can not harm others."

I reckon they won't change mentally during this process?

well i doubt they would commit another crime or else they would go back to prison and age another 30 years.... they wouldnt be able to this too many times without eventually killing themselves.

and i tihnk it would have a mental effect... i mean imagine being 20 years old and you take enough of the drug to be aged 30 years and after a week your hair is long and grey your face is all wrinkled your joints hurt etc, etc, i think that would effect you mentally.

It's much more harsh than prison, I think.

true you lose life and time .... but the same goes for prison... except with the pill you lose a bit more.... you lose potential memories and experiences.... but they would all be in prison of course.

As a citizen of your country would you vote "Yes" on this procedure?

Depending on what criminals is it used on...rape, homicide, etc...yes. And the age of the criminal is an issue. A guy who's 18 punished for 20 years imprisonment...not too useful on him.

and

AS a prison inmate would you accept this alternative to serving prison time?

Hell NO! What if I got my prison time reduced later on...can you give me back my lost years?

well actually it would have a dramatic effect on someone who is 18 and is aged to 40... he will have lost the prime of his life. i would say thats a huge loss.

As far as your sentenced being overturned.... well we are assuming all your appeals are exhausted and that your fate is to be imprisoned.

[Cyborg]

And some prisoners might even claim that being prison raped and beat up for 30 years is more torture.

Then they should use money on prison security instead of this...

[TMA_1]

I totally agree that prison is a torture; you are correct there. that is why I said the prison system is in such shambles.

[Dunenewt]

People stay in prison to not be able to commit crime. It's not like "because you did what you did, you will lose 20 years of your life span", but rather "because of what you did, we cannot trust you for 20 years. You will have to stay in a prison where you can not harm others."

This is the main point and I feel it cannot be argued against.  You commit the crime, you do the time. Period.

[GUNWOUNDS]

This is the main point and I feel it cannot be argued against.

[Cyborg]

Anything done to, or brought upon a person as a result of an action he took could be called punishment as long as it's against his or her will... So whether or not you can call it punishment is not interesting.

It's just that rehabilitation is better for a person than just being aged.

[desert_storm]

I agree with cyborg

[GUNWOUNDS]

yes rehabilitation is better... but how sucessful is rehabilitation?? ... i dont have any statistics but i would wager it is very poor just from the observance of overcrowded prisons, early parole, and repeat offenders.

Especially recently a man was given early parole who was a sex offender and he went straight out and abducted a girl raped and killed her.

[Seal89999]

I dont think its a very good idea....

As already stated, even if your body is aged...your mind will stay the same....even old people can commit crimes. And prison sentence is alot worse, being in prison is tough and being in there for an actual long time would be terrible. Knowing you have to spend the next 20 years in jail would be really scary and would be a worse punishment than getting the effects of serving 20 in a very short time.

[Cyborg]

yes rehabilitation is better... but how sucessful is rehabilitation?? ... i dont have any statistics but i would wager it is very poor just from the observance of overcrowded prisons, early parole, and repeat offenders.

You have a good point there. Rehabilitation doesn't work on many people because they just are who they are, and will commit crimes when the conditions are right. Some, however, change.

But I think that it's hard to change when the prisons are so terrible. You wouldn't become an angel by spending time in hell... I think a lot of work could be done on that part.

[lowzeewee]

When you go to prison, you go in there to suffer.

Taking the pill is just like us passing through 20 years, without even having to worry about anything that might happen during those 20 years...and worse still, if a convict was 35 years of age when he took the pill, he would be 55 years old and would be a social-security-dependent...

[GUNWOUNDS]

You wouldn't become an angel by spending time in hell... I think a lot of work could be done on that part.

wow man thats a cool way to say it

[Edric O]

This is a ridiculous (not to mention inhumane and counter-productive) idea. The point of putting people in prison is to prevent them from doing any more harm to others and to turn them into law-abiding citizens by the time they come out.

Now, I agree that the current prison system is a massive failure in terms of rehabilitation, but this "aging pill" would be even worse. If you're in prison, you can learn to do various kinds of work that will allow you to earn an honest living after you're released. But if you take an aging pill, you learn NOTHING.

Not to mention the fact that the aging pill has an irreversible effect, so if you turn out to be innocent a few years later, there's no way to get your youth back. As Nema said, if you get sentenced to 20 years and you're proven to be innocent 1 year later, you only lose 1 year in prison - but you would lose the full 20 years if you took the aging pill.

I would oppose the aging pill under any circumstances. And the only kind of person who would accept this pill instead of a prison sentence is a guilty criminal who wants to get back to his life of crime as soon as possible.

[GUNWOUNDS]

This is a ridiculous (not to mention inhumane and counter-productive) idea. The point of putting people in prison is to prevent them from doing any more harm to others and to turn them into law-abiding citizens by the time they come out.

Now, I agree that the current prison system is a massive failure in terms of rehabilitation, but this "aging pill" would be even worse. If you're in prison, you can learn to do various kinds of work that will allow you to earn an honest living after you're released. But if you take an aging pill, you learn NOTHING.

Not to mention the fact that the aging pill has an irreversible effect, so if you turn out to be innocent a few years later, there's no way to get your youth back. As Nema said, if you get sentenced to 20 years and you're proven to be innocent 1 year later, you only lose 1 year in prison - but you would lose the full 20 years if you took the aging pill.

I would oppose the aging pill under any circumstances. And the only kind of person who would accept this pill instead of a prison sentence is a guilty criminal who wants to get back to his life of crime as soon as possible.

true they wouldnt learn anything .... but the "irreversible argument " doesnt hold.. because no person who believes themselves innocent would take the pill right away.... only the guilty ones who knew they were guilty would take the pill.  So the arguement about having your sentence overturned in 1 year is irrelevant.

[nemafakei]

"but this "aging pill" would be even worse"

Indeed: the ageing pill idea involves no rehabilitation whatsoever. It's simply a punishment, and hence no different to imprisonment, with the exception that the criminal is far more likely to reoffend, since they have been offered no alternative training, no rehabilitation, no encouragement to work with society...

NB: "well i doubt they would commit another crime or else they would go back to prison and age another 30 years.... they wouldnt be able to this too many times without eventually killing themselves" Holds true for pill and prison as well.

[Vanguard3000]

This reminds me of Harlan Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin" Said the Ticktockman, in which a ruler known as the Master Timekeeper (or the Ticktockman) enforces strict life schedules to ensure an efficient world and to keep a teetering economy in check.  The Ticktockman has a 'cardioplaye' corresponding to every person in his city/nation/world (it's never fully specified), and if someone shows up somewhere late, that person's cardioplate is punched, removing X seconds/minutes/hours/etc from his or her life.

Anyway, it sounds like a pretty useless idea.  Prison may have been at one point intended for rehabilitation, but now it is more for our safety by keeping them away from free society.  The pill would prevent that and, as others said, there would be no way to 'shorten' the effects if the person is found to be innocent later on.

It seems like a convicted criminal would see the pill as the "easy way out".  If he is guilty, either way he's going to be twenty years older by the time he's free again, so why spend the twenty years when you can get it over with in twenty seconds.

One of the neatest things I remmeber seeing was in an episode of the new Outer Limits series.  it had David Hyde-Pierce in it (Niles Crane from Frasier), and involved him having to go to a virtual prison, where he spent a full ten-year sentence in his mind, while he was really only hooked up to a machine for thirty seconds.  Of course, it had the same drawback as the pill in that it couldn't be ended prematurely.  Any thoughts on this?

[Emperor Harkonnen]

That pill sounds stupid. we would loose workers which could do menial tasks in prison, serving the society.

besides its worse to loose 20 years of your life than spending them in prison where you can for example read, and increase your knowledges and much more.

[Acriku]

If you give inmates the option to take the pill, then nobody would take the pill! This is a rediculous idea.