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Comment by lhc- | Hacker News Reader

So these genuinely bad people, you feel the solution is to lock them up for life? Whats the threshold to indicate when they should no longer be allowed to participate in society?

A lot of "bad people" succeed in the outside in politics, banking, venture capital, and frankly every industry. A lot of "bad people" in prison could easily be leading much different lives if they were born into different circumstances. How do you expect these people to become productive members of society and transition from "bad people" to useful citizens if you deny them any help or any tools to do so? If your only choice for survival is to sell drugs, then you're probably going to sell drugs. If there are better options, most people will take them.

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This is the exact dialogue we need. I was referring to a certain strata of the incarcerated such as serial rapists and repeat murderers. Thankfully, that's a very small portion of inmates - so I retract my comment on there being a lot of them.

Sure, the term "bad people" cannot be quantified and really comes down to outlook in life, but I truly believe these folks cannot be rehabilitated and do not belong in our society.

Members of the Roman Imperial Legion were known to engage in serial rapes and murders in the lands they occupied.

There is a calling for this type of skill set, and the exact role is that of a soldier. As there haven't been many wars in recent years, it's only logical that you'd find these types in prison.

Relevant to this discussion is Foucalt's concept of "disciplinary institution". [1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciplinary_institution

Would hardly call what a professional soldier does the same as what a murderer, often a crime of passion, does. Same with rape. I do not need raping soldiers in any capacity.

All soldiers rape the conquered women. That's what soldiers do.

That's a shitty generalisation, historically true but far less so amongst modern professional non-conscripted standing forces.

It's less true among modern standing forces because it's rare for those forces to be sent anywhere. Not because they've stopped doing it.

This is incredibly offensive to professional members of the military. You are also completely wrong about the lack of war in recent years as it relates to incarceration.

That would lead to things like the Dirlewanger Regiment, which the SS disbanded because they committed too many atrocities.

Are you suggesting that soldiers are called up out of a desire to harm others?

Hare-brained theory: Less "harm", more "impose their authority on". It takes a certain mindset to become an officer/soldier/etc.

Those professions are how society channels those kinds of impulses in a semi-constructive way.

He also wasn't in with any of those people. Rapists and murderers don't tend to be sent to minimum-security prisons.

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