Leonard Peltier: Amnesty Int'l Calls on Biden to Free Indigenous Leader "Before It's Too Late"

[marble falls]

4. Let's say he did it (I suspect he did) ...

... the US imprisons a higher per capita of it's citizens than anybody else not Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, North Korea. We sentence people to higher effective terms than anyone, including Russia, China, North Korea. We use the death penalty more than just about anywhere else except China, Saudi Arabia.

And the violent crime rate here is higher than than any developed country. We treat our prisoners worse than any of the developed countries.

It just isn't working.

Do you think that the purpose of prisons is to moderate behavior, or to get even? Are prisons there to assure the victims of crime know someone is suffering or demonstrate society's values regarding certain behaviors?

A lot of people think cases are made to "get the dead justice". That's not it all. There is no justice for the dead or their families. The justice is reserved for the accused. All the dead are is evidence that a crime may have been committed. Not only do interested parties not get a place in the process as judge, jury, prosecutor, jailer, "punisher"; the public does not get to be a lynch mob, either.

We won't even get into the abysmal treatment of prisoners or the high percentage of the innocent jailed. Or the number "law abiding" citizens who think prison rape and other cruel and inhumane extrajudicial treatment is just fine.

The biggest consideration to parole IS whether the prisoner will recidivate and/or be a threat to his community. That's the stated aim of parole and probation for Pete's sake!!!! Why should you living in Cleveland have any say about a criminal in San Diego? Let alone a Sioux reservation in Nebraska or South Dakota!!!