A Modest Proposal
...with apologies to Jonathan Swift, who first wrote a proposal of similar nature in 1729.
It is clear that we as a society need to find new alternatives to our present method of dealing with heinous criminal behaviors such as murder, rape, child molestation, etc. As it is now we incarcerate the worst of our criminals. Depending on the severity of the crime, many of them are held for extended periods of legal wrangling, awaiting a death sentence. Many of those, so incarcerated, look forward to that day of their execution as a way to relieve the suffering of living in isolation with only books, TV, art, rigorous physical workouts, and playing cards as diversions. While these people reside in outdated multi-million dollar prisons, taxpayers foot the tremendous cost of caring for their needs.
May I propose this alternative: place them in beds and use drugs to induce a vegetative state. The criminal may choose to be fully present during their punishment, or to be so blasted-out on drugs that they won’t really know what’s happening. By nature of the punishment, once made, that decision could not be changed. As part of the punishment, the criminal would not be told of the length of their incarceration. While these people serve their time, be it for six months, fifteen years or life they can be fed and hydrated through tubes. Their waste products can be taken care of in the same way. All sensation of pleasure would, of course, be denied. Their muscles will atrophy as will their ability to care for themselves. As to the atrophy one can only say, those are the breaks of doing the crime. As for the other, minimal standards may be created to assure that they are not lying in their own filth.
This alternative will be less expensive, less labor intensive, require smaller facilities, and may well be more effective than our present penal system, which is clearly not all that effective anyway.
A simple solution don’t you think? Naturally, many of those reading this will be opposed to my proposal, perhaps even repelled. Let me make note that these cry-babies will range widely across the spectrum of political ideology. There will be Tree-hugging Liberals on the Left, and bible quoting Neocons of the Christian Right all screaming for justice. One might imagine that these extreme opposites will one day stand together in unison on street corners holding up disgustingly graphic and lurid photos of, “poor vegetated convicts,” raging that my proposed methods are cruel, and unusual. I will be called names. It will be implied that I am raving and lunatic in my ideas. I will be vilified, even demonized. Let me state unequivocally that I am willing to incur their wrath if a better solution to the problem may be fully explored.
Allow me to close with this question: why is it cruel and unusual to place a heinous felon in such a condition, leaving them to rot for an unknown eternity, while at the same time it is a virtue to keep a woman alive who awakens, innocent of crime, into such a condition, not induced as a punishment, but rather through accidental happenstance?
It is clear that we as a society need to find new alternatives to our present method of dealing with heinous criminal behaviors such as murder, rape, child molestation, etc. As it is now we incarcerate the worst of our criminals. Depending on the severity of the crime, many of them are held for extended periods of legal wrangling, awaiting a death sentence. Many of those, so incarcerated, look forward to that day of their execution as a way to relieve the suffering of living in isolation with only books, TV, art, rigorous physical workouts, and playing cards as diversions. While these people reside in outdated multi-million dollar prisons, taxpayers foot the tremendous cost of caring for their needs.
May I propose this alternative: place them in beds and use drugs to induce a vegetative state. The criminal may choose to be fully present during their punishment, or to be so blasted-out on drugs that they won’t really know what’s happening. By nature of the punishment, once made, that decision could not be changed. As part of the punishment, the criminal would not be told of the length of their incarceration. While these people serve their time, be it for six months, fifteen years or life they can be fed and hydrated through tubes. Their waste products can be taken care of in the same way. All sensation of pleasure would, of course, be denied. Their muscles will atrophy as will their ability to care for themselves. As to the atrophy one can only say, those are the breaks of doing the crime. As for the other, minimal standards may be created to assure that they are not lying in their own filth.
This alternative will be less expensive, less labor intensive, require smaller facilities, and may well be more effective than our present penal system, which is clearly not all that effective anyway.
A simple solution don’t you think? Naturally, many of those reading this will be opposed to my proposal, perhaps even repelled. Let me make note that these cry-babies will range widely across the spectrum of political ideology. There will be Tree-hugging Liberals on the Left, and bible quoting Neocons of the Christian Right all screaming for justice. One might imagine that these extreme opposites will one day stand together in unison on street corners holding up disgustingly graphic and lurid photos of, “poor vegetated convicts,” raging that my proposed methods are cruel, and unusual. I will be called names. It will be implied that I am raving and lunatic in my ideas. I will be vilified, even demonized. Let me state unequivocally that I am willing to incur their wrath if a better solution to the problem may be fully explored.
Allow me to close with this question: why is it cruel and unusual to place a heinous felon in such a condition, leaving them to rot for an unknown eternity, while at the same time it is a virtue to keep a woman alive who awakens, innocent of crime, into such a condition, not induced as a punishment, but rather through accidental happenstance?
posted by Jonathan (WriteZoo) Ellis at 6:25 AM
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