America is a good place. You know, it is true that it says in America, that there cannot be unusual/severe punishment. I will obey, but lots of the people who commit crimes just do it again when they're out of jail! Well, you should just not let them out, EVER. They did crime. They deserve it. It would separate bad people from everyday, working people. It seems right. Discuss. (P.S. - I'm new, so sorry if this is the wrong part of the site to discuss.)
Do you mean that every crime, regardless of how severe, should be punishable by a life sentence? So jaywalking will have the same penalty as murder? Sounds like a really bad idea to me. The punishment should fit the crime, for that to happen the punishment should be different for each crime.
I think the OP means that only America has a first class penal system where even the worst of our prisoners are still allowed civil liberties which they are. Apart from that, America is a place of freedom... just overall freedom. It's something we take for granted since it's inherently our right but it's a huge step up from most of the world which is not as free.
Which bits of the rest of the world? Apart from Europe, Australia, Canada and other places that don't have the equivalent of the repressive PATRIOT Act and which are therefore more free than the US?
I can't argue with an Australian about the penal system- apparently you know more than I do in that regard.
Yep, I probably know more than you about both systems. But just in case you think I missed your "point"...I've never heard anyone bang on about Australia being a penal colony before Except where I live it was never a penal colony
America already has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. higher than any third world dictatorship. what does this tell us?
Pretty sure we have Anti-terrorism laws which are basically an Australian equivalent. Unless they got repealed and I didn't hear about it. No idea what the hell the OP is going on about so can't really comment on that.
I should hope so. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. The U.S. incarceration rate on June 30, 2009 was 748 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents, or 0.75%. The USA also has the highest total documented prison and jail population in the world. Really? Smoke a joint in public, and then tell me how free you are. Or read the police blotter around a military base, and see the 19 year olds busted for drinking alcohol (they can drive, vote, and get blown to bits by an IED, but they can't have a beer). Or just go through a TSA checkpoint.
Unless you're accused of, say, terrorism. Then they'll do whatever they like to you. No trial required.
What America does or has done.?......I should be more like What America needs to STOP doing for the rest of the world. Consentrate on and for it's own society and well-being.
I am glad you stated The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. Would it be worse than say China, which, of course, doesn't document their incarceration rate does it? I wont even dare to mention Russia or some of those countries living under the boot of vile African despots. Maybe you should have stated that 'The United Staes has the highest incarceration rate in Western Democracies. I don't know, of course, if that statement is true but it removes the anti-American bias so blatantly evident in your post.
Are you kidding me? That is a horrible idea. That goes back to what someone mentioned before about severity of the crime. You can't give someone who's jaywalked 3 times a life sentence. That's just downright unconventional and pointless. And also, forgive me if I'm wrong (as I'm not very well educated on the whole judicial system and the processes that go along with it), but is it not true that repeat offenders are indeed given longer sentences? What you're asking for is just simply wrong. Quite frankly I'm puzzled at such a bold and radical idea.
do you have any evidence or sources that suggest undocumented incarceration rates are higher in trhese countries? or are you relying on your slavish admiration of america to justify manufacturing fictional claims to demonise other nations?
Cruel and unusual punishment is not allowed. Cruel punishments are allowed. Unusual punishments are allowed. They're just not allowed if they're both cruel and unusual.
It tells us many things. One thing it tells us is that America is not one nation. It is many nations, some of whom are hostile to each other.
interesting point of view ... so you would agree then that "the United States of America" is a bit of a misnomer?
Americans are not the people they think they are, and America is not the country Americans imagine it to be.
I like the Title of this Post......"America And What it Does". Yah....Kiss the Backsides of every other Hog Crap Country around the world. In the name of spreading Democracy and Peace. Yah....Dump all of American Tax Payers Money in the Trillions upon Trillions of Dollars year after year, into Foriegn Countries that don't deserve Hog Spit. Today the USA is financialy FLAT BROKE. If there is ONE thing True Patriot Americans need to do. Is take this country back and away from the Democrats and Republicans. If it stays this way.....In the comeing time, there will be a Severe Nationwide Civil War. FACT