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Comment by saosebastiao | Hacker News Reader

Harsh sentances for murderers also very likely do not prevent murder. But they do keep known murderers in places where the exposure to potential victims is much lower. By doing so, we have a safer world even if we do not have a significant disincentive to commit murder.

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And now you know why the US houses most of the world's prisoners [0]. This is the same thinking that brings the US security theater at its airports. Anything for safety, even if it only mariginally works.

[0] https://www.aclu.org/safe-communities-fair-sentences/prison-...

We aren't the worlds largest jailor because we put murderers in jail. We are because we have made jailable crimes out of benign actions that do not harm other people. Drunk driving is not a benign action that does not hurt other people.

Who's talking about prison? Driving is a privilege. Suspending it, possibly forever, doesn't appraoch custodial sentences.

How does one enforce such a suspension, without resorting to prison? (I suspect someone will mention "fines/monetary penalties", but that's rather begging the question.)

Taking away the driver's license is how it is enforced, I think. So if you are stopped, you get a ticket/arrested for driving without a valid license.

Yes, and when you don't pay your fine and drive without a license, and society decides it cares because children, you go to prison. This is what I meant. Now you're in prison, the overall rate of drunk driving is unaffected, and America is still the prison champion of the history of Earth, which was the point of the thread.

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