Widow Testifies at a Military Court

[Taem]

That was the big 'rehabilitation' argument of the '60s. Mostly, it doesn't work. That's not opinion, that's measurable fact. Recidivism rates run as high as 75% depending on the crime. The average person sentenced to jail has been arrested for about 20 crimes (not all convictions, but knowing who did it and proving who did it are two very different things).

Agreed.

Nor do I believe in punishment per se. The purpose of punishment is to alter behavior. It doesn't work on people past their early teens (and often not even then).

I don't know. In the middle-east, if you are caught stealing and have a hand chopped off, I'd say that would pretty much end your thieving career picking pockets or what-have-you! The objective being to stop the criminal from doing what they are doing, *not* to rehabilitate them, this makes logical sense. Combined with what you stated in the three-strikes law, we have the following:

Each crime committed gets typical jail time for "rehabilitative" purposes. However when you have committed the same infraction 3x, you move to PUNISHMENT phase where you loose a body part pertaining to that infraction! With a three-strike system, you are pretty much guaranteeing that even if the justice system has failed one time for this person (innocence project type scenario), the odds it would have failed two more times is significantly low! This ensures more safety to the non-criminal citizens by removing a part of how these criminals activate; such as removing the penis of a 3x convicted child rapist, taking the life of a convicted killer, removing the hand of a chronic thief, etc.

Anything that doesn't do damage to a person's body or property should not be a crime. At most, a misdemeanor, subject to fine and/or community service.

Too easy to abuse. You have drug-lords that simply bark orders and never actually get their hands dirty in Mexico, but thousands suffer because of their effect. You would have the middle-men punished but not the boss himself? This, I do not agree with!