> Are you saying that it is *not* inhumane to lock someone in an 8x8 foot cell
> for life, or that its cruelty is justified? Are you wanting to punish the
> person, or protect society? Neither has been proven to be achieved through
> punishment.
'People who commit such acts, if convicted, should never be allowed the
opportunity to do so again. I am not of the school that thinks prison should be a
place of abuse and ill treatment, tho i know it is. That doesn't solve anything
and makes the gaolers inhuman.'
i think you possibly missed the above in my last letter.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Take a violent person and treat him
> like an animal, deprive all his senses and you will get a "worse," more
> violent, person. And his contact with his family and culture magnifies the
> very problem you are trying to eradicate. Plus, it is downright cruel - and
> we have no more right to be cruel to another person than he has to be to us.
I certainly agree with that. I made that clear, so I thought, in my previous
post. Treating such people with contmpt and cruelty will solve nothing.
>
>
> I think that having been raped, I am less likely to want to see another
> person suffer.
Like you, I have experienced rape, amongst other forms of violence, only I was a
child and it happened regularly over a period of years.
Like you, my experience was different to that of Mags, there was somthing left
but it took 38 years to find it buried under all that crap.
Punishment in these instants won't work. Venting our rage and feeling for revenge
will only make the matter worse(tho venting can be done in a safe productivde way
which holds no danger to anyone including the ventor). In fact i think punishment
probably doesn't work at all.
However, whiclt i agree that the present ways of dealing with 'criminals' is
inhuamne and make everything worse, I still hold to the belief that people who
commit the croimes we are discussing MUST be permantly kept away from those that
may continue to harm. Sexual abusers are notorious for not being able toc ahnge,
for even not being able to see their wrong doing. I feel the lives of children
are far too important to mess with and to let abusers go,a fter short sentences,
sends the wrong message to society, to the abuser and most of all to the
abusee-the abusee feels they are unimportant and what happened to them was not
'that bad'.
I applaud your desire to make this world a better place, that is my desire also.
I act accordingly. However, the place to start, to prevent these people from
being, is to PROTECT AND LOVE CHILDREN!!!!!! It is children who grow up to be
these sad people. it is children who grow up commit these vile crimes and
although not all abusees turn out to be abusers it IS the cause. Damaged
chuildren grow up to be damaged adults. Damaged adults commit crime. Damaged
children often can't feel. Severe damage prevents a person feeling empathy. Lack
of empathy is one reason why such vile acts can be committed.
forced therapy does not work. NO ONE can make a person accpet their problems.
Like the only person who can do somehting about their alchoholism is the person
with the problem and they have to admit it themselves. It cannot be forced upon
them..
Like you, I destest the way we run the world. I detest the fact that children
are not treausred by society. For those that think they are, tell me how so many
are murdered everyday? tell me why people turn a blind eye to what is going on
next door, up the street, to that bruised child at school? It sooo much easier to
pretend all is okay. And then get mad when adutls to bad things and lock them up
otr worse kill them. we have the society we deserve. Until each of us is willing
to tkae responsibilty for ourselves, is willing to get honest, is willing to get
honest, we will conti ue to have the sort of world we have. The abuse of children
does not happen without collusion of friends, neighbours, teachers, medicos,
church, law enforcement ect. I do not suggest the collusion is conciouis and
deliberate, but the result, dead or damaged children, is the same.
As much as i detest the prison system and it's furtherence of pain and depravity,
I am not prepared to let such abusers be free, ever, to continue the damage we
ALL suffer from.
I don't feel prisons need to be hell holes, nor do i think they should be. I see
no good at all in mistreating people whatever they have done. That is a far cry
tho from allowing people to do whatever they wish to do. If I allow my compassion
for such people to cloud my thinking,as people do all the time, and more damge
results, then i will be guilty too.
In the last few motnhs, sevreral cases of children who have been murdered by
their gaurdians have been in the news. In each case, the social workers involved
were more itnerested inthe abusers being treate with compassion and understanding
than in the ssfaety of the said children. Thos children paid for this with
horrendous lives and deaths. this is NOT a rare occurance but a common one. in
our country, UK, of about 55mill people, 3 children a week are killed thru
neglect and torture by their parents. Many many, many more survive the abuse they
suffere. Most sexual abuse happens at home yet we concentrate upon 'stranger
danger'!
if we don't stop the abuse of chuldren, if we don't learn to love and chrish them
as individuals, we will continue to live in the sad world we live in.
bw colin
>
> remember that "treatment" (like punishment) isn't only for that individual
> but for future generations. The goal is far more global than protecting one
> possible victim.
--
bw
colin
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