Prison Terms

How should a judge decide on the length of a prison term? The first criteria certainly should be keeping the criminal locked away so that they cannot hurt others. The next criteria is deterring others from committing the same crime. However, victims seem to think the main criterion is how sad they are at losing a loved one. This justifies the death penalty in their view. They foolishly imagine that killing the criminal will ease their pain.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)