coatta@cs.ubc.ca (Terry Coatta) (02/12/90)
David M. Tate writes: > Anti-execution forces say "Don't kill criminals; spend money and > effort to keep them in large brutal hotels for years at a time, rather than > spending that money to end poverty, hunger, or the drug traffic." I know that > this sounds like a harsh assessment, but I hope you will think about it in a > detached way. Rather it seems to me to be a specious argument. The assumption which underlies this logic is that the only thing we can do with criminals is keep them in large expensive hotels. Where is the evidence that there are no other means for dealing with criminal behaviour? I daresay that little effort has been made in the areas of rehabilitation, much for the same reasons that social service funding is continually attacked. There is a deep-seated resentment of spending money on those whom we perecive as undeserving. We evidently have not found it easy to accept that we should ``judge not, lest you be judged.'' It would be worthwhile to recall that Christ spent much of his time amongst those who his society considered undeserving. Where do you suppose we'd find Christ today? Terry Coatta Dept. of Computer Science, UBC, Vancouver BC, Canada coatta@cs.ubc.ca `What I lack in intelligence, I more than compensate for with stupidity'