Take a stand regarding solitary confinement, the death penalty, or life in prison. Tie your reasoning in with that of the theorist/theories we have studied and be sure connect it or support it with the readings.
For this blog prompt I am going to take a stand on life in prison. Like was stated in The New Yorker article often times the sentence of life in prison is given, but then reduced. Putting myself in the position of someone who has been sentenced to life in prison, I would just want to know if I really was going to spend the rest of my life in prison, or if there is really a chance of me getting out early. To me this is a little confusing.
One idea that really caught my attention was that if individuals in prison know there is a chance that they will be released early, they are more well behaved. This makes sense since good behavior is often rewarded with being released early. Being sentenced to life in prison is pretty much ending your life right then. There is nothing more to live for, but knowing there is a small glimmer of hope that you could be let back into society keeps some prisoners from acting out.
But back to taking a stand on life in prison, I feel that a definite sentence needs to be given initially. If the chances of the individual being released early are almost certain, then just assign a shorter sentence. I think this would be a slight improvement to maintaining an individual's dignity in the criminal justice system. For a person to understand that they did something wrong, serve the appropriate time, knowing how long that is going in, and then being able to come back into society would allow him/her to maintain dignity rather than the option that seems to take place now. This way of sentencing life in prison, maybe you will get out early, maybe not is playing with the human mind, and creating unnecessary anger.
The New Yorker article also brought up the idea of programs while in prison to help better oneself. I think this is a great idea since most of these people will ultimately be returning to society. We should be encouraging them to better themselves rather than creating this anger that is expressed when they are just released back into society and don't know what else to do rather than cause more problems.
Relating this idea to the thoughts of George Kateb seems like a rational idea. In the first chapter of his book, Human Dignity, he states, "humanity is the greatest type of beings". This being said, people in prison should not be treated like animals. They are being placed in a correctional facility to help them, not hurt them or make their lives seem like anything less than a human. By giving someone the life sentence, and making them wonder will I or won't I get out early is taking away a certain degree of their dignity.
Most of this reflection has been based on not knowing if one will really serve a life term or if they will get out early. To switch gears a little bit, lets assume that if one was served to a life sentence and there are no chances of them being released early. This is basically just allowing them to wither away slowly, until they ultimately die. This isn't the way one is suppose to be living their life, people are suppose to make the most of what they have and do what they can to make themselves happy. It seems that people sentenced to life with no early release often try to end their lives themselves instead of waiting for it to naturally happen. Why would anyone want to force someone to even think about that! That itself is majorly impacting that person's dignity.
Its is clear to me that the life in prison sentence needs some adjustments. If there is a good chance one will be released early, then assign a shorter sentence, there is no need to toy with a human's mind over how they will spend the rest of their life.In the occasion that there is no chance of being released early it would be nice to have some sort of programs for prisoners to keep their minds working and still bettering themselves even though they have landed in this position. To be clear, I don't mean throwing them a concert for entertainment, but rather a class on current events, or maybe teaching them a trade they could just do as a hobby. We don't want to make the jail a better place to be than society, but by providing them with some form of happiness they can have the right degree of a normal life taken away,but still fulfill their own needs as a human to have likes and hobbies.
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