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Comment by modeless

3 years ago

It's unfair to say it "makes" them that way. They were incarcerated because they already proved willing to commit a crime. It failed to change them back into an average citizen, sure. Understandably a very difficult problem. It's quite possible that it makes them worse instead of better but we'd need different evidence to show that.

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modeless

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closewith  3 years ago

The average citizen in every country is already willing to commit a crime. The difference between the average criminal and you is a couple of meals.

  • morgante  3 years ago

    This is completely untrue and does a tremendous disservice to the many impoverished people who do not become criminals.

    > The difference between the average criminal and you is a couple of meals.

    This is an insane point of view! Most criminals aren't stealing food.

  • laurent_du  3 years ago

    No amount of missed meals will make me commit a rape, a murder, or other heinous crimes.

    • vunderba  3 years ago

      You don't know this. You can "imagine" how you'd react in a theoretical situation all you like, but It's like the first time you go skydiving - sure you know the safety record and you've got a parachute/reserve but until you get thrown out of a moving plane at 14,000 feet in the air, you have no idea whether you're going to react calmly or completely freak out.

      Likewise until you're actually in a life and death situation, you don't know what you're truly capable of.

      1 reply →

    • cellis  3 years ago

      Maybe not for you, but what if your son/daughter was missing meals? Moreover, you can see other people eating just fine, and no one will hire you? Also consider that the people you "murder" likely "had it coming" and were rapists, terrorists, blasphemers, or otherwise cultural heretics...until and unless you've been in those exact situations, it's incredulous that you'd not do what many other humans would do/have done.

      3 replies →

BirAdam  3 years ago

Not everyone who is incarcerated committed a crime. Some are in custody for having marijuana which has since been decriminalized in some areas. Others are there because they plea bargained due to pressure. Almost no one who is in custody ever had a trial despite this being a “right” in the USA.

  • modeless  3 years ago

    We're talking about averages here. Certainly there are plenty of individuals wrongly incarcerated, etc.