Quote:
Originally posted by SlickRick
Crime is low pretty uch in other countries because they respect the punnishment they may get if they brake the law.
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Here in the US of A you get treated better while in the prision system. I don't have dental insurance. If I was to go to prision I would get full medical attention, and full dental. It cost about 18K a year to keep a person in prision each year every year they are locked up.
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That's an interesting opinion about respect for the punishment being the difference between US and Swiss crime rates.
I have often heard stories about people being arrested in the US and thought, "wow, it sounds like it is very easy to get yourself locked up over there"
It's probably reasonable to assume that when too many people you know have been to prison it starts to lose it's mystique and is less scary.
As far as the prisons being an attractive option... I doubt that is a factor in the crime rate.. I would argue the more we spend on prisoners and the less we treat them like "criminals" the less likely they are to act like criminals on release... if prisons where paid on performance for minimizing re-offender numbers it's my bet they would be much more like University/Holiday Camps for first time offenders... and the community might even be happy to spend 10 times the current amount of money "re-educating" criminals... rather than wasting dollars on a system based mainly on punishment.
Then again, "state re-education centres" might be a worry in themselves come to think of it :p
Someone pass me a gun!
