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If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill...........................

Should criminals be released(no prison)if rehabilitation came in the form of a pill?


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jamesrage

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Lets say if it was possible to rehabilitate every criminal and make them feel remorse with a single pill and there were no chances of relapses,should criminals be given the pill and released immediately back into society/not have to serve out a punishment or should they still serve out what ever punishment the courts gave them

I believe rehabilitation is one of the goals of the prison system,but not a priority.Punishment is the main priority of the justice system,deterrence of criminal activity is the second priority.
 
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Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Is the pill cyanide?
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

If criminal activity could be cured completely then why on earth would we imprison people? Society could certainly find better uses for the monies that would be saved by not having to build and staff prisons, feed and cloth prisoners and funding programs that end up helping the spouse and children make ends meet while they are unable to support their families.

BTW, I put my actions where my mouth is on this. I fought hard to keep the young man that hit us head-on while on drugs from going to prison after he rehab'ed himself. While I am permanently disabled as a result of this accident, permanently wrecking his life as well would serve no useful purpose. He will contribute a lot to society during his lifetime as a result of having turned his life around.
 
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Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

.....If the criminal wants to take it. Sure and then on account of that his/her sentence should be reduced. If he doesn't. Why should he? He'll just keep going back to jail.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

My mom was on that pill and look how I turned out...

Alright, since there's no pill that could ever do such a thing (chemical castration has been proven to be ineffective), I'm guessing that this is just a "what if" scenario.

The way I understood the penal system was to prevent folks from committing the crime in the first place. This has been an argument stated by those in favor of the death penalty. So, now a deterrent would be just a pill?

I would assume that if such a pill existed that it would behoove society to innoculate/vaccinate its citizen pre-crime. Why not have the whole of society take the pill if its effective?

Sorry, I'm getting bogged down in the logistics of the pill itself here.

As for the argument, there is a social need to see criminals get their come-uppance. Take for instance, Kohlberg's level of moral development. The base line is the old biblical adage "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". We are driven as adults to grow higher up the ladder and become what could be considered "Christ-like" and "turn the other cheek". So is that where we as a society should strive to? If we administered the pill, should we still seek retribution and take the tooth which was taken from us. OR should we as a society try to be "Christ-lie" and forgive those who trespassed against us and re-admit the perpertrator into society post-pill?
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

If criminal activity could be cured completely then why on earth would we imprison people?

You do the crime you do the time.



BTW, I put my actions where my mouth is on this. I fought hard to keep the young man that hit us head-on while on drugs from going to prison after he rehab'ed himself. While I am permanently disabled as a result of this accident, permanently wrecking his life as well would serve no useful purpose. He will contribute a lot to society during his lifetime as a result of having turned his life around.

I think your sympathy is misplaced,hopefully that individual does not waste it.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Unless the pill caused amnesia, I would still be for prison.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

If the crime was related to legit ailment from which they were suffering and the pill is an effective cure I don't see why not in theory.

Legislative wise though it's a mess to try to get professional consensus in regards to mental illnesses and pills don't magically fix most mental illnesses in a guaranteed way that can be relied upon.

But in a fairyland where "no chance of relapse" is a sure thing it would be unimaginable to keep them locked up.
 
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Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

If the crime was related to legit ailment from which they were suffering and the pill is an effective cure I don't see why not in theory.

Legislative wise though it's a mess to try to get professional consensus in regards to mental illnesses and pills don't magically fix most mental illnesses in a guaranteed way that can be relied upon.

But in a fairyland where "no chance of relapse" is a sure thing it would be unimaginable to keep them locked up.

Have you ever heard of a hypothetical question?
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

What constitutes rehabilitation?
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Lets say if it was possible to rehabilitate every criminal and make them feel remorse with a single pill and there were no chances of relapses,should criminals be given the pill and released immediately back into society/not have to serve out a punishment or should they still serve out what ever punishment the courts gave them

I believe rehabilitation is one of the goals of the prison system,but not a priority.Punishment is the main priority of the justice system,deterrence of criminal activity is the second priority.

Of course they should be released if they were completely "cured." The whole point of punishment IS deterrence! What the hell is the point of keeping harmless people in prison on the taxpayer's dime?
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Have you ever heard of a hypothetical question?

Sure but once they border on being outlandish there's little point in such thought experiments.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Of course they should be released if they were completely "cured." The whole point of punishment IS deterrence! What the hell is the point of keeping harmless people in prison on the taxpayer's dime?
Technically, deterrence means you shouldn't let them out. Knowledge of the 'pill release' is likely to increase the attractiveness of crime amongst the potential criminals.
 
Re:

If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

I believe this issue has already been explored thoroughly in Anthony Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange".
If it were possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill, it would be unethical to do so. Even if they agreed to such a scheme, there would be passive coercion involved, ie the hope of leniency or early release.

If such a pill were available, the only way it would be ethical to use it would be if it were made available to anyone in the free world who wanted it (in other words, not to prisoners).
In other words, people who had not been arrested and imprisoned for crimes but nevertheless felt they would benefit from taking such a pill would be allowed to request one.
And even then, I feel the ethicality is questionable. You're talking about removing a person's free will, which some argue is all that makes us human.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

What i find informative through this debate is that you think all criminals have something wrong with them.Your missing the point of how advantages it is to break the law if you get away with it.

I have always been of the opinion Al capone would be a bill gates if he could.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

What i find informative through this debate is that you think all criminals have something wrong with them.

Many scumbag sympathizers think criminals should be treated like someone with a illness that needs to be cured and released with no regard for the victims.


Your missing the point of how advantages it is to break the law if you get away with it.

People also seem to miss the fact that vigilante justice would be on the rise.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Technically, deterrence means you shouldn't let them out. Knowledge of the 'pill release' is likely to increase the attractiveness of crime amongst the potential criminals.

I actually agree with you on something.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Lets say if it was possible to rehabilitate every criminal and make them feel remorse with a single pill and there were no chances of relapses,should criminals be given the pill and released immediately back into society/not have to serve out a punishment or should they still serve out what ever punishment the courts gave them

I believe rehabilitation is one of the goals of the prison system,but not a priority.Punishment is the main priority of the justice system,deterrence of criminal activity is the second priority.

They should be given the pill and THEN forced to serve out the remainder of their sentence.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Of course they should be released if they were completely "cured." The whole point of punishment IS deterrence! What the hell is the point of keeping harmless people in prison on the taxpayer's dime?

There are not in prison for treatment,they are in prison as a punishment I.E. loss of freedom and rights for committing a heinous act. It doesn't matter if they are harmless anymore,if they feel remorse or what ever it doesn't change the fact they did something to wind up behind bars. It amazes me how you scumbag sympathizers have no regard for the victims and their families.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

There are not in prison for treatment,they are in prison as a punishment I.E. loss of freedom and rights for committing a heinous act. It doesn't matter if they are harmless anymore,if they feel remorse or what ever it doesn't change the fact they did something to wind up behind bars. It amazes me how you scumbag sympathizers have no regard for the victims and their families.

I agree, this is what Scucca could not get during the Death Penalty debate.
It is not about revenge or emotion or anything else other than, if you commit a crime, you get the punishment attached to it as well. It is the crime that is the point... what happens after the crime is irrelevant. That is all. That is it. People try to make more out of punishment than there is, and THAT is the problem.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

What i find informative through this debate is that you think all criminals have something wrong with them.Your missing the point of how advantages it is to break the law if you get away with it.

I have always been of the opinion Al capone would be a bill gates if he could.

This is a good point. But it varies from one criminal to another.

I think that most normal people are fully capable of committing some serious crimes, depending on their life circumstances. I also think that most criminals could be "normal people" if their life circumstances were different.

However, there are a few that are just psychotic or have other personality defects that mean that they actually *do* have something wrong with them. I assumed that these were the people that we were talking about.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Many scumbag sympathizers think criminals should be treated like someone with a illness that needs to be cured and released with no regard for the victims.

It depends on the crime and the criminal. Chances are, someone who steals your TV doesn't really have anything "wrong" with them, other than they wanted your TV. On the other hand, some serial rapist/killer who dresses as the Joker while committing his crimes probably has some psychosis.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Technically, deterrence means you shouldn't let them out. Knowledge of the 'pill release' is likely to increase the attractiveness of crime amongst the potential criminals.

Not likely. Assuming that the person couldn't "profit" from the crime (because they would come to regret it and not want to repeat it), there would be little justification for them to commit it in the first place.

Most crimes against person/property (I'm excluding drug offenses here) are committed because the offender believes he will benefit from committing the crime in some way. The "pill release" would remove that benefit, thus negating the reason to commit the crime at all.
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

There are not in prison for treatment,they are in prison as a punishment I.E. loss of freedom and rights for committing a heinous act. It doesn't matter if they are harmless anymore,if they feel remorse or what ever it doesn't change the fact they did something to wind up behind bars. It amazes me how you scumbag sympathizers have no regard for the victims and their families.

Umm curing the offender would be showing the highest regard for the victims, by ensuring their weren't any MORE victims.

Your concept of "punishment" sounds a lot like revenge. This isn't surprising to me, given your other totalitarian tendencies, but it does beg one important question: Just what is the point of "punishment"? What does punishing someone accomplish?

In my opinion, punishment accomplishes two things: 1) It deters the offender and other people from committing the same crime again, 2) It removes the offender from society for a certain period of time in which they are not able to re-offend.

Neither of those two things would be relevant if the person were completely "cured."
 
Re: If it was possible to rehabilitate criminals with one pill.......................

Of course. Why bother with prison if not to rehabilitate?
 
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