Posted by Cathy Taggart --Previous Message--
on November 30, 2005, 9:22 pm, in reply to "Re: Van Nguyen - I wonder What we all think!"
Thank you Kevin for your thoughtful and informative comments. As I indicated in my "post", I don't have any first-hand experience of prisons - just what I've heard and read - so it's encouraging to know that prisons aren't always the totally destructive places which I feared they might be. To me there seems no point in sending offenders to gaol unless there's a good chance that they'll be able to turn their lives around, so I pray there'll always be committed and caring people working in prisons to help them do just that.
: Good on you Caty - nice to hear from you. You
: make good sense about the deprivations of
: people in prison. I don't know about Asian
: prisons but have done bits of owrk over the
: years here in ur prisons in Sydney and
: generally they are tough places, but places
: where the prisoner sare treated with a
: degree of humanity and respect. It's a
: respect they have to earn in the context of
: the prison system it seems from what I've
: observed, and if they earn that respect then
: they are treated well.
:
: It is true too that many are locked away in
: prison who should be allowed to re-establish
: life in other ways. It's too easy to lock
: them up and throw awya the key - again a
: sign of a culture in need of transformation.
:
: Here at home we have a long way to before we
: "get it right" if you like - I
: supose that will always be the case. I know
: a man in another State who is a prison
: officer, and my sense from him when he
: speaks aobut his work, is that he treats
: the inmates with considerable respectg - and
: he works in a maximum security facility.
:
: While there is undoubtedly profound
: dehumanisation in all our gaols, there are
: some opporutnities for re-integration when
: inmates choose to take that path.
:
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: I totally agree with you, Kevin. However,
: since the alternative to capital punishment
: is usually to lock people away for a long
: time - maybe for most or even all of their
: lives - I think we also need to be concerned
: about what sort of a "life" they
: will be left with when a death sentence is
: commuted. From what we hear, it seems that
: conditions in Asian prisons are pretty
: horrible, and of course foreigners have the
: added agony of being far from family and
: friends.
:
: Even in Australia, from what I've heard and
: read, prisons are overcrowded, violent
: places where people are treated as if they
: are barely human. I don't know about
: elsewhere, but here in South Australia the
: current public mood seems to be one of
: "lock 'em up and throw away the
: key"- and of course politicians are
: only too eager to jump on the band wagon!
: When a person who committed a serious crime
: (e.g., sexual crimes or causing death by
: dangerous driving) receives a gaol term of
: say, three or four years, there's invariably
: a public outcry that this is too lenient.
: Well, of course, this may not normally be a
: big slab out of anyone's life, but it is an
: awfully long time to be deprived of almost
: everything that makes life worthwhile for
: most people!
:
: Of course, from a moral
: perspective,imprisonment under any
: conditions is preferable to the death
: penalty. However, let's not forget that no
: matter what some-one has done, they are
: still a beloved child of God, and they still
: deserve a chance at repentance. As Jesus
: showed us, you can best bring people to
: repentance by letting them experience God's
: love and mercy, not by treating them as if
: they were less than human!
:
: --Previous Message--
: Today New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark
: had the courage and the compassion to
: confront Singapore's Prime Minister on the
: issue of Van Nguyen's upcoming execution.
: Our own Government has been wringing its
: hands in an impotent kind of impersonation
: of Uriah Heap as it claims that we can do
: nothing.
:
: This is the same mob whose leader only two
: years' ago suggested that we might have a
: discussion on the possibility of
: reintroducing Captial Punishment in
: Australia!
:
: Drug trafficking is of course an awful crime
: and deserves to be punished accordingly.
: Nothing however is worth the deliberate
: taking of another person's life. The trauma
: experienced by the witnesses to the hanging
: of Ronald Ryan in Melbourne's Pentridge Gaol
: in 1967, and the enduring damage done to the
: families of at least one of the judges
: involved in that case, attest to the fact
: that it is not just the excecuted person and
: his or her family who suffer.
:
: The whole of society is demeaned by such
: barbarism, and the existence of a death
: penalty is surely evidence of a society that
: is yet to mature to the point where it can
: deal with serious crime with justice and
: with real wisdom.
:
: Eighty countries, and thirty five U.S.
: States still employ the death penalty, with
: Singapore having the highest per capita rate
: of executions each year.
:
: I pray that we can do better and that our
: leaders can somehow grasp the enormity of
: their mealy-mouthed excuses for not doing
: more to save the life of Van Nguyen.
:
:
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