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Comment by fouric | Hacker News Reader

I agree that we need a better system, one that does better at either rehabilitation or deterrence through punishment, as our current system is bad at both.

However, we can't let these types of offenses continue. Altercations in prison indicate a type of extreme stupidity and/or violence, given that the offender is committing a crime while in the punishment stage for another crime. Drunken driving kills ~10k a year (http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Impaired_Driving/impai...) and gang violence kills about the same in Mexico (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10681249). The numbers for drug overdoses (often indirectly caused by said Mexican gangs) are far higher. Do you really want to let literally tens of thousands of people in the United States and Mexico lose their lives every year because we were too soft on the offenders?

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> Altercations in prison indicate a type of extreme stupidity and/or violence

Your list is incomplete. Altercations also occur when people are stressed. Push most people enough, strip away humanity and agency, and they will lash out.

> because we were too soft on the offenders

Being too hard on prisoners has its own downsides. As this essay demonstrates.

The question is, had we treated Adam Morales, Angel Coronado, and the others more softly, would they still have gone on to the commit crimes that lead them back to prison?

> we can't let these types of offenses continue

There doesn't seem to be much in the way of evidence that the US style of being hard on prisoners has your desired goal of reducing the number of deaths due to drunk driving, as the case of Silvestre Segovia demonstrates.

Therefore, it doesn't seem the hard/soft classification is really relevant.

Altercations in prison often indicate a desire not to be beaten or raped.

You need some perspective.

Estimates for ME casualties are between 500,000 and 2 million plus, not including refugees, the injured, nor the complete economic gutting for those who remain experience.

What should be done about that? Gonna let the US government get away with genocide?

Prison, like most other institutions in America, is about power and control. It has nothing to do with morality, efficiency, nor opinion, those are manufactured lies and opinions to keep the status quo.

You sound like another blood thirsty progressive calling for the wanton destruction of millions.

Want to stop Mexican cartels, support drug legalization. Prohibition doesn't work, it has never worked, drug use declines in countries, like Portugal, which decriminalize drug use. Calling out for the powerful to continue their spree of murder and to continue to gorge upon the lives of young black men is utterly disgusting and farcical especially when you sight the drug war as what we must fear. No fear the ones who imprison millions and kill millions more.

Get a heart.

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