h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am, BTW, very interested in your opinion on life imprisonment...

I think that its stupid. the whole message is 'you have done something so bad that you are no longer judged as fit to live in this society', and i think that is outdated. If they can't be in one society, kick them out, banish them, let them go somewhere else, live thier life and not bother us again. People shouldn't have to pay for these people's room and board. It costs more to keep someone in prison for a day than it does to put them up in the ritz. It's insane. No one should have to pay for that, and no one should have to put up with that treatment. Banishment is the intelligent way to go.

i tend to agree with that thought. i also somewhere in the back of my very tired brain remember something about a banishment community before. they wound up doing quite well for themselves on that 'little island' for criminals .
Monsy

And where would you ban them to? Aren't mostly of the places already taken?

I see no need to find a specific place to put all the criminals, they can go to other countries if they want. Although it would probably be a good idea to place them in countries with harsher penalties for the type of crime they commited. Like Japan for example, the courts are tougher, and the sentances are longer (in general), i like to think of it as a kind of lifetime probation. I mean, they still have a perfect opportunity to live a long healthy life, and its puts the burden of supporting themselves upon the person and not the country that tried/sentanced them.

Didn't Cuba have that idea - empty the jails and send them all abroad, in this case to America. Or did Oliver Stone just make it all up for 'Scarface'?

Can't say it's practical - who pays for all the flights?

and wouldn't other countrys get upset? it could get to the point that everyone would flee an airport if they see one of our planes coming, since there might be a mass murderer on it. prity soon it would be impossible for anyone to leave the country for any reason.

Okay, first of all, cuba never tried anything like that. It was a cool idea, except for the fact that the U.S. is already turning away perfectly honest people from cuba already, and second of all, the taxes necessary to pay for someone to live out a thirty day sentance would more than pay for the ticket, even if it was first class, and on a really expensive flight, and provided for three fifty dollar cups of tea.

on the note of other countries, many of them harbor criminals, even canada resisted U.S. requests to turn over an alledged serial killer, until the U.S. government fialy said 'fine then, keep him', and then they suddenly became very amicable. If it were done on a diluted level, very few people would object.

But wouldn't you mind letting criminals from other countries into your country?

First of all, I doubt that the U.S. would be the recipiant of any criminals because of the lax laws. And if they have served time, not necesarily life, but a sentance similar to a standard murder case, or something else equivilant to a smaller version of the crime and then were shipped off, many countries wouldn't think twice about letting them in. A past criminal record will not keep you out of a country. A life sentance will.

So basically you just want them out of the US? What about other countries?
Take, e.g, a prisoner from country X. He is serving his sentence and are then send to country Y. Prisoners from country Y should also be sent somewhere...

YES, BUT THIS KIND OF RADICAL MOVEMENT IS BOUND TO (sorry) catch on very slowly. Very few countries will actually attempt to banis people, and although it could eventually spread out to the entire world, it is a teporary, if not solution, improvment.