At 10:19 AM 10/13/2004, you wrote:

>Shawn,
>
>         The three strikes movement works because of the guarantee of
> punishment vs. the threat of it.  If we guaranteed an adequate punishment
> for the first offence, we wouldn't even need the three strikes rule.

I totally agree with you.  There's that sheriff out in Arizona that has
very few repeat offenders because he makes it so unpleasant to stay with
him, if all prisons were like this, then you wouldn't see too many 2nd strikes.


>Ray Shahan
>-----Original Message----- From:   HP-3000 Systems Discussion
>[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Shawn Gordon Sent:   Wednesday,
>October 13, 2004 12:01 PM To:     [log in to unmask]
>Subject:             Re: [HP3000-L] OT:  Saddam at his best.
>
>At 09:49 AM 10/13/2004, Bruce Collins wrote:
>
> >According to
> <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html>http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html
>  > >The U.S. (and Iraq) are part of an ever decreasing list of countries
> that >still have the death penalty. Note the company you keep in the
> following >list. There are also a few countries including Israel, Mexico,
> Chile, and >Brazil, that only allow the death penalty in exceptional
> cases (I assume >Saddam would qualify).
>
>I have a very simple math formula to support the death penalty.  Stats are
>like 10% of the criminals commit 80% of the crime, so you kill that 10%
>and suddenly there is hardly any crime left, and because they are dead,
>there is no chance to get back out on the street and commit more
>crimes.  Harsh punishment is actually a detriment, the problem with the
>death penalty is not that we have it, but that it is so rarely used and
>takes so long to be enforced that it isn't really seen as a
>detriment.  Personally if my choices are life in prison and the death
>penalty, I'd take the death penalty, who wants to sit in prison your whole
>life, which is just a slow death penalty.
>
>In california we have a 3 strikes law - you have 3 felonies and you go to
>jail for at least 25 years.  You know what?  Crime in our state has
>dropped DRAMMATICALLY because this law is enforced.  There is a great
>short story by Larry Niven about a future where organ transplants have
>been perfected but they only harvest organs from criminals on death row or
>natural causes where the organs are still viable.  The problem is that the
>demand for organs goes up and people stop committing the crimes because
>they know they will die, and they'll die in short order, so the populace
>keeps voting the death penalty for lower and lower crimes until finally
>too many traffic tickets is cause for the death penalty.
>
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Shawn Gordon President theKompany.com www.thekompany.com 949-713-3276
>
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Regards,

Shawn Gordon
President
theKompany.com
www.thekompany.com
949-713-3276

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