Sure, that works... except for murder. Nobody who kills another person is going to give a damn about consequences, or if they are it isn't going to stop them.
AchrisK, it simply is not true that the death penalty works as a deterrent. It is not something that can be argued.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=2374
That may be true of the current death penalty in the current system. But I believe that if our society (the USA) had always had much less tolerance for crime, and swifter, more fitting consequences for crime, that crime would be lower. There is no escaping the logic that consequences change people's behaviour, and it seems to me that a model which effectively utilizes that idea could be better than what we have now.
In most cases, murderers are not normal citizens which all of a sudden decide to kill people. People have been allowed to live lives of crime, and maybe drugs, and likely themselves been victims of all kinds of atrocities. The whole cycle needs to be dealth with if any system is to work.
I think rehabilitation is a great idea, but again, our current system makes it hard to effectively implement. I mean, the society in prison among inmates is pretty horrible and adds to the problems of those in prison. Even the guards and wardens and whatnot are typically very uncaring and regard the prisoners as unworthy of human decency. My brother-in-law was issued size 9 shoes, and he is size 11. How can a human become so cold as to treat another human that way?
Of course this system will have to involve the courts, since most actions cannot be necessarily judged solely on the outcome.
This is such a daunting issue, and I think it is because of the nature of man. Anyone who says man is basically good is blind. The selfish, proud, lazy, greedy nature of man will throw flaws into any correctional, political or social system that anyone ever tries to set up.
