Alright, recently a friend of mine has been getting himself into a fair bit of trouble with violence and drugs. His family has seen it fit to put him through one of those programs where you basically get intimidated by a convict for three hours. Knowing how Anarchists feel about prison, how does the community feel about programs like this?
Sounds really stupid, how is some scary asshole yelling at you about how he ruined his life but can't wait to rape you supposed to change your mind about wanting to be high?
Seconded. If that had ever happened to me I'd just wanna go get trashed even more to forget about it haha..
Saering! Programs like this are both almost completely worthless and extremely expensive.. Now my .02 If your friend is using as much as warrants this type of reaction by his guardians maybe you should start learning him about the wonderful world of moderation. It's what keeps us as happy healthy humans. Even if he was on the hardest shit.... He needs to learn to control his consumption or else it will destroy him.
Sounds like "Scared Straight" anyone ever watched those? People (especially teenagers) are going to do what they want to do.. I've always thought that if they were going to send kids to those groups yelling wouldn't really be the best thing for them. I mean it would seem smarter if the "convicts" would just talk to the kids like human beings and listen to their problems and then give them advice from the life that they have lived that would better "influence" the kids.
He already knows all about moderation. The thing is that his fam thinks that the fights he's been getting into are a result of the drugs instead of his state of mind. He's brave when he is angry but is kinda prone to breaking down otherwise. I just wanna keep my buddy the way he is when all this shit is done with. Would the talking really help? In the end I would think all they could come up with is that "you don't want to be stuck in here."
I'm actually pro-prison... anti-law's Less laws, less prisons... some people need to be in prisons, tho
How can one be "anti-law" and "pro-prison" at the same time? What purpose does prison truly serve? Who decides what offense is worthy of imprisonment? Who runs the prison, and how? How would people "guard" prisoners without creating a heirarchy? I don't see a prison system fitting into an anarchist society.
Anti-laws = Less laws I believe in Direct Democracy... so the people would decide what offense is worthy of imprisonment.
No, anti-laws equals, literally, AGAINST laws. Ok, so the people decide the offense. Do they choose who enforces it, i.e. give someone the authority to enforce it? How would that be justified in an anti-authoritarian, anti-hierarchal society? How would a prison system even run without hierarchy, especially without the corruption that comes with it?
I mean anti-law as in less laws. I'm saying we would decide the laws... there would still be judges. I'm also saying there still is democracy but the people actually control it.
How would this be any different from the US's current republic democracy? You're still granting people authority, with can be abused, and WILL lead to corruption. Guess what? People ELECT their senators, and congressman. Its basically the same except you're proposing electing someone for EVERYTHING. Prison guards, judges, etc. Let me ask you this, would you still believe in having a police force if we got to elect every single officer?
I believe there would be less police... but there still would be poilce... I'm not sure how we would elect police officers... but i think someone would do it and the people would make the guide lines for them to follow
You realize that anarchism advocates and uses direct democracy right? The two aren't mutually exclusive.
Though prison systems in an anarchy society would be a contradiction, we would need some way to deal with killers, rapists, child Molestors etc. But drugs wouldn't be illegal, so your friend would have no problems there...