Once a felon always a felon?

[Prometheus]

You can rehabiliate a paper bag of dog crap by painting the bag pink and adding colorful flowers on the outside and masking the smell with perfume but no matter what on the inside it's still a big ole bag of poopy.

Thats my .02

HAAhaaa HAhahahHAH haaaaaaa! Wait... I'm okay.... Bwaahahahaaaaa!

Damn that was funny. AMEN, Darrell.

[Prometheus]

One co-worker thought proper punishment for criminals would be to give them Basic Training and send them overseas to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not sure that would be wise because there are too many things that would/could go wrong.

I once had an inmate ask me why they don't send felons to fight in Iraq. I told him that Iraq has enough problems without crack dealers.

[oscarmitre]

...

Anyway, this thread in general was a topic that was discussed at work today. One co-worker thought proper punishment for criminals would be to give them Basic Training and send them overseas to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm not sure that would be wise because there are too many things that would/could go wrong....

Especially in Afghanistan. Give em a couple of weeks and they'd corner the heroin export business there.

[acreature]

Regarding the Heroin....

A couple F16s for protection and a few hundred ex-Vietnam pilots turned crop dusters could rid the Country of the ****. ;)

[dwf]

You've asked an interesting question, but to simplistic in its design.

There are certainly a substantial number of people in this world who should not be out and about with the rest of us. There are crimes committed and acts done to others so heinous and perpetrators so vile that in my opinion they have forfeited any right to be among the rest of us.

However, felony crimes, as is the case with misdemeanor crimes are broken into two basic categories; crimes of violence and crimes against property along with other mitigating factors that may jump an incident from misdemeanor to felony. The criminal justice system is a strange bird, often times politically driven and not being consistent in different sections of the country. I can do things here that would be crimes in other parts of the country. A classic example of this is a person who was arrested, charged, and convicted with felony possession of a firearm when caught with a semi-auto pistol under the seat of a pickup truck and a shotgun shell on the seat while in a county park after closing time (crime of trespassing while in possession of a firearm). The state in question has some serious gun laws, while out west...guns are part of the culture and it ain't no biggy. Back east you get drilled for a felony and out west no one cares. This person is now a convicted felon.

On the flip side, I routinely deal with a lad who knows where the line between felony and misdemeanor is and stays just short of it. He's a bully and thug who takes great delight in beating others into seeing things his way. He has over 40 assault convictions (not arrests...convictions) in just over a 5 year span. He never uses weapons, never causes significant injury and yet is terrorizing a neighborhood for no reason other than he is an anti-social piece of crap who enjoys it. He has never been convicted of a felony crime but needs some serious psychotherapy accompanied by a long stretch in prison.

To answer your question...no I don't see it as you posed the question. There are some true anti-social and very dangerous people walking around who shouldn't be. But once a felon always a felon...no.

[JiNN_kAi]

One of the very first things I learned in a class I took called Crime and Punishment is that jail can never be regarded as "rehabilitation." Rehabilitation, to me, takes the form of half-way houses and programs were the inmates aren't in a prison but in a structured environment where they must work to pay for their lodging and whatnot. Jail is meant simply as civility by incapacitation; they keep the criminals out of society, because unless they are in society they cannot harm us. The problem with the incapacitation idea is that they will eventually be released into the society to create the same problems they were before -- return customers. I think the "Three Strikes" idea is a step in the right direction, but more focus needs to be placed on real rehabilitation if you don't want these criminals to just follow their yellow brick road to three strikes. I think there are definitely people who cannot be rehabilitated, and yes; I believe they are the "once felons, always felons" people. THOSE people are the ones who should be in jail - FOR LIFE.

[darrell]

Regarding the Heroin....

A couple F16s for protection and a few hundred ex-Vietnam pilots turned crop dusters could rid the Country of the ****. ;)

No **** because those are the crazy pilots. They are a little touched since the war and can fly the wings off of anything. I know a few of my dads crazy buddies that flew bombers and fighters in Nam. When I mean they are out there it's like we are in my living room and their mind is in Iowa some place. They are just plain GONE. They could make a huge dent with a few fighters and some sidewinders :D .