Throw away the key

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Gob
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Throw away the key

Post by Gob »

THE state's worst murderers and violent criminals will be kept behind bars after their sentences have finished under a radical plan by the NSW government that will target prisoners who resist rehabilitation.

Premier Kristina Keneally will today order Corrective Services to begin an audit of the 750 ''worst of the worst'' prisoners in NSW.

Prisoners refusing rehabilitation programs or judged not to have taken responsibility for their crimes will be detained indefinitely under new powers. The plan will build on the Crimes (Serious Sex Offenders) Act, which provides for the extended detention and strict monitoring of rapists and sexual offenders.
Motekiai Taufahema (above) killed Special Constable Glenn McEnally. Bassam Hamzy shot an 18-year-old outside a Sydney nightclub.

Motekiai Taufahema (above) killed Special Constable Glenn McEnally. Bassam Hamzy shot an 18-year-old outside a Sydney nightclub.

Extended Supervision Orders would be expanded to keep murderers and violent criminals caged in the same way as sex offenders.

Prisoners such as Motekiai Taufahema, who murdered Senior Constable Glenn McEnally in 2002 and is due for release in two years, could be locked up for longer if he is deemed not to have reformed.

It is thought more than 50 inmates could expect to be locked up beyond the end of their sentences after the review is completed. Ms Keneally said: ''This is about sending a message to the worst prisoners: 'If you don't do the rehabilitation, you know what? You won't get out.'

''Those prisoners who do the right thing will not be impacted by this review … but those refusing to take responsibility for their actions will be identified.''

Civil libertarians said the plan undermined the justice system and would deter prisoners from rehabilitation if their sentences were effectively meaningless.

NSW Council of Civil Liberties secretary Stephen Blanks said: ''The rule of law requires politicians to set the framework of justice and for judges to deliver sentences away from political influence.

''The prison system is there to encourage prisoners to reform but, if they know they can effectively be re-sentenced by the government, there is no incentive to reform.''


http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/throw-away-th ... .html#poll
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Miles
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Re: Throw away the key

Post by Miles »

''The prison system is there to encourage prisoners to reform but, if they know they can effectively be re-sentenced by the government, there is no incentive to reform.''
I disagree with the above statement. I would consider that very fact to be a huge incentive to reform.
I expect to go straight to hell...........at least I won't have to spend time making new friends.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Throw away the key

Post by BoSoxGal »

Agreed.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Gob
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Re: Throw away the key

Post by Gob »

Miles wrote:
''The prison system is there to encourage prisoners to reform but, if they know they can effectively be re-sentenced by the government, there is no incentive to reform.''
I disagree with the above statement. I would consider that very fact to be a huge incentive to reform.
Aye! from me too
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Scooter
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Re: Throw away the key

Post by Scooter »

Prisoners refusing rehabilitation programs or judged not to have taken responsibility for their crimes will be detained indefinitely under new powers.
A (presumably unintended) consequence will be that prisoners who are actually innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted, and refuse to lie by acknowledging guilt, run the risk of being detained indefinitely.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

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Gob
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Re: Throw away the key

Post by Gob »

Nice one Scoot!

That had not crossed my mind!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Andrew D
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Re: Throw away the key

Post by Andrew D »

It is the crucial point of all of these programs. The prosecuting authorities are scared to death that they will be shown to have incarcerated innocent people, as they have done uncountable tens of thousands of times, so they rig the system to make it so that falsely admitting guilt brings about better results than does truthfully asserting innocence.

I am sick to death of all of the stories about people who have been imprisoned for years -- in some cases for decades -- for crimes which, as it turns out, the evidence conclusively demonstrates that they did not commit. There is this endless litany of "I'm not bitter about it". Not bitter, my ass.

What would be really healthy for society is the prosecutors' in those cases being found dead in ditches. That would send a salutary message: You bring about the incarceration of someone who is innocent, and you will pay. And pay dearly.
Reason is valuable only when it performs against the wordless physical background of the universe.

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Gob
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Re: Throw away the key

Post by Gob »

Ok, now what if someone who knows themselves to be innocent, should take up the option of "admitting guilt" and offering "remorse". Surely when they are on the outside they have more chance of proving their innocence?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Andrew D
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Location: North California

Re: Throw away the key

Post by Andrew D »

Once one has "admitted" one's "guilt," there is almost no realistic possibility of proving one's innocence. Even DNA won't be enough: "Well, if you're innocent, why did you admit your guilt"?

The proper solution is to make them pay. And pay and pay and pay. After all, each nanosecond of your liberty is worth infinitely more than all of their lives combined ....
Reason is valuable only when it performs against the wordless physical background of the universe.

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