18 and life to go (prison life that is)

[Enviiouss-x]

Lawyers. The End.

I don't get the special treatment criminals receive in this country. Even many Americans are in disbelief over treatment of prisoners versus the poor in this country. If I had my way, prison would be a place you would avoid going back to at all cost. High-def Cable TV? How about limited electricity allowances?

Funniest part of this story, along with other(pretty much all) whiny criminals: They are put in the spot by violating other people's rights, yet, when it comes to their own rights, it's a serious business all of a sudden. Seriously, before handing him a "life", judge should be slapping him across the face, "get the 🤬 outta here".

Completely agree. It honestly makes me sick, and I'm eighteen years old myself, that people go to prison and receive such luxuries. A TV is bad enough, yet Cable TV? AND games consoles? Ridiculous. If you go to prison you should receive nothing but a bed and a toilet in your cell. Visitor times should be completely scaled back. You would receive three basic meals a day. If we're going to cut costs somewhere in this country it should be in prisons. Maybe there wouldn't be so many crimes committed if the penalties were so harsh.

You go to prison because you can't abide the law's which were laid out before you. Therefore, you are isolating yourself from law-abiding citizens, i.e. the rest of society. I personally believe that if you don't want to be part of society and wish to go around doing as you please with complete disregard for everyone else, why should you be completely isolated from society. You shouldn't have the right to vote or anything. I think you should lose your human rights as well up to a point. Just my opinion. Rant over.

 

[NLxAROSA]

Weird way of putting some one to jail.. I assume 25 years is already a very long time (that is the maximum here in The Netherlands)

Actually, the maximum over here is 'life', which basically means 'indefinitely'. In practice people are pardoned after 20 years or so if they behave properly and are not completely bonkers.

 

[Schwartz]

This may just be the naïvity coming out of me, but I hate life sentences, as well as death sentences (unless the guy is a complete lunatic serial killer). Personally, I believe everyone deserves another chance, weather it be in 6 months or 20 years. What is the point of life, per se if there is nothing to live for? In this particular case, I don't think it's right to give the guy a 162 year sentence if he had never been charged with these crimes prior to now. This guy will never get a second chance at life, while others get 3rd, 4th, and 5th for other crimes. I say sentence him to 10 years, and if he does the same thing again, put him back in the slammer.

I understand that I am the minority in here. While you all think about the safety of the innocent public (and rightly so) I always seem to step into the shoes of the defender. Why, I don't know.

 

[Famine]

He had seven chances to stop taking things from people while pointing a loaded firearm at them.

Rule 2 of guns is "Never point the barrel at something you are not happy to destroy". He pointed them at people.

 

[a6m5]

Yeah, it's all fun & games until he's forced( ) to shoot somebody in his armed robberies.

I understand the seriousness of somebody being put in prison for life, and I'm also generally against death sentences. But every time I hear on the news how someone was victimized by a repeat offender, my reaction to that is either: 1) He shouldn't have been allowed out. 2) Put a bullet in his head.

Where I live, a truly evil psychotic man was arrested trying to rape a ten-year-old inside the men's room at Wendy's. He cut & stabbed the boy in the process. I was pretty shocked by the story, then it escalated to the fact that he formerly abused & raped children, while trying to infect them with the HIV virus that he had. It doesn't stop there, but I'll spare you guys the detail.

So they let this guy out, and now there is a ten-year-old scarred for life, even physically with stab & cut marks? Do criminals deserve a second chance? Not in this case, obviously.

My youngest brother nearly got kidnapped when he was a toddler. Right inside local department store. God knows what this sicko had planned for him. And had this man been caught, how do we punish that? Since he was unsuccessful, I have no doubt that he'd been let off in no time. Is he then going to learn his lesson, and not sexually assault more kids? Your kids? Your brother, sister, nephew or niece? It was a close call for my family, but I'm too afraid to imagine how not only the victims, but also the families of victims suffer needlessly at the hands of repeat offenders.

I can certainly understand & appreciate someone getting a second chance. But it's really hard to take sides when like this guy from the story, how sure are we that he isn't going to offend again? While you or I might make out of crimes like these OK, victims are often traumatized by having their life threatened by a gunman, so I wouldn't exactly consider armed robbery a victimless crime.

Actually, whenever repeat offenders make the news, another thing that sometimes pops into my head is the judge. Judge just uphold the written law, so I understand that it's out of his/her hands, most of the time. But maybe there should be a sponsorship requirement? If you succeed in having a criminal released, you will share accountability. Be it their lawyer, family, etc. Maybe I'm crazy, or that it's 1:54 in the morning, but that makes sense to me.

 

[Luminis]

See, I'm entirely fine with locking someone up forever for such a serious crime.

However, and I feel that this is the idea behind considering someone like him a first-time offender... He's still pretty young and a few hard years in prison might better him. I'm not exactly happy with how well criminals get treated over here, often receiving no appropriate punishment whatsoever... But I do think that someone should get a chance to redeem himself.

I mean, isn't that what prison is kinda supposed to be? A place where a convict should be taught to be a valuable part of society? I don't think that commiting such a crime multiple times shows that he's entirely unable to be rehabilitated... Then again, he can't become a threat to someone innocent ever again, that way. So it's probably for the best. After all, everyone should be able to understand that pointing a gun at someone isn't cool.

 

[CMvan46]

Here in Canada all crimes you commit have the time counted at the same time. 5 robberies at 10 years each? Well your out in 10 years. That is sickening, it should be counted one after another as in this case. As was just said I have no problem locking somebody up forever if they show they commit many crimes. That isn't a first time offender that is. Repeat offender who was finally caught.

 

[Lucas]

I believe it is pointless to put someone in jail for life. If that means "for life", as in, no chance for you to go out at any given time, then may as well give him death sentence. I thought the whole point of jail was to help the people who got there, instead of just punishing them and wait until they serve their sentence. Because if instead of helping them rehabilitate, you put them in a cell, all alone, for quite a few years, they may come out worse out of prison than they already were when they got in.

 

[dhandeh]

They won't be in a prison cell all on their own. It wouldn't surprise me that the facilities that are found in prisons, surpass what a lot of these criminals would have access to if they took a law abiding route in their life.
Some people can build on a spell in prison and change their life for the good. Others, unfortunately can't. 18 armed robberies, I reckon no amount of jail time is going to sort out this waste of rations.