Shouts From Down Under

Word Crimes should incur a minimum sentence by comma law.

http://susanneillfraser.org/

2010



2014



2015

http://www.9news.com.au/National/2015/06/20/03/34/Rally-in-support-of-convicted-...

Who says what is a crime, and who teaches these people in the first place? How do we know if something is really a crime? How do we work out what should be done with those who commit?

http://www.answers.com/Q/Who_decides_if_something_is_crime

http://psych.answers.com/criminal-psychology/what-is-crime-psychology#slide=1

"What is Criminal Psychology?
The study of criminal psychology investigates the intentions, wills, motivations, and reactions of criminals. It involves the assessment of criminal behavior. Unlike other fields of psychology, crime psychology doesn't not rely on standardized tests of gender, ethnicity, race, or age to predict behavior. Criminal psychologists assess all aspects of criminal behavior, including premeditation as well as what happens after a crime, whether the criminal is on the run, in prison, or going through the court system."

Deterrence.

http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/crm/21-40/crm027.html

Is this measured by how empty the jails are? Deterrence works = people not doing the crimes any more = less people imprisoned due to DETERRENCE. Right? Wrong.

The size of the world prison
population has increased by
approximately 10% since 2004.

http://www.penalreform.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PRI-Prisons-global-trends-...

Being poor and mentally ill must be just an excuse of the weak, the stupid, and the rebellious. That's right isn't it? That's what people say, who, incidentally, have money, have stable lives, have good education, have a lot of things.
The ones that didn't have a good life to start with, who did battle through some or all of these difficulties; do they really justify sending the rest of destitute and mentally challenged to jail because of their supposed crimes? Is it crime to steal bread if you're hungry? Is it crime to feel depressed because you can't support your wife and children? Not only can you not support them but you can't do anything with style. Flowers. All those things that don't magically solve everything, but come awfully close.

But NO.
It's your fault, you poor, marginalized citizens, who come from broken homes, and are probably mentally ill. Stop committing these crimes! Are you slow in the head or something? Go get some money so you can stop being poor. Probably lazy too! Yes. That's it. WORK HARDER for your money, sluggard!

The vast majority of prisoners the
world over are adult men. In most
countries, they tend to be drawn from
the poorest strata of society. The
UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme
Poverty and Human Rights reported
in 2011 that ‘disproportionately high
numbers of the poorest and most
excluded are arrested, detained and
imprisoned’.67 The Open Society
Justice Initiative confirmed that
‘most pre-trial detainees are poor,
and economically and politically
marginalized’.68
A comparative study of Latin American
prisoners in six countries revealed
‘the prevalence of broken homes
and abandonment in inmates’ family
histories’ and relatively low levels of
education.69 Similar findings have been
found in the UK,70 where 15 per cent
of male prisoners are thought to show
symptoms of psychosis compared to
four per cent of the general population.
A study of South African prisoners
found even higher levels of mental ill
health; 23.3 per cent of prisoners in
Durban were suffering from current
psychotic, bipolar, depressive and
anxiety disorders.71 These conditions
were for the most part undetected
and untreated.
Some categories of prisoners have
specific vulnerabilities and the
experience of prison can impose
additional burdens.


I googled this.

Is there a way to bring back those years of imprisonment of the wrongly convicted?

http://www.innocenceproject.org/free-innocent/improve-the-law/fact-sheets/compen...

While interesting that there is recent information being generated, obviously by concerned people about this, the sad and obvious fact is, there are no Harry Potter style magic wands to fix such monumental mistakes.

What about word crimes? Should there be a less than humorous approach to stopping people making mistakes in writing?

Perhaps this becomes a trivial matter, that is very clear, compared to people's lives being ruined, and people who commit real crimes from being deterred.

I know someone who did time. They were a shell of their former self, upon release. I'm not exaggerating.

I just do not see that a long prison sentence does anything. People, if they have the capacity to learn anything, they'd learn it and regret their action, probably even before they go into prison. A week? A couple of months maximum would be enough to feel like a caged animal. Even 5 minutes would demonstrate that their entire existence depends on other humans, and other humans whims, whiles and wherefores.

To me, long prison sentences do very little, perhaps nothing, to teach people not to do it again. Humans need to be taught. But seriously, what sort of lesson goes on, and on, and on?

Here's what I believe is the real outcome, and the underhand purpose of jails. Because its a demonstrated fact that jails do diddley squat in deterring anyone.

The real outcome is

A. Just plain old ornery (Ornery is a word:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ornery) dominance over other humans.

B. Being the boss because we / they / someone can. The lesson could have been taught quickly, intensely and thoroughly, without removing over weeks, months and years, decades even, that persons dignity and any scrap of feeling of self worth that may still exist in their deeper being.

C. A determined, yet deluded way of thinking that this'll teach 'em a lesson they won't forget. Well, they wouldn't have forgotten the lesson after even a couple of days locked up like a dog.

D. A misconceived idea that locking someone away as a form of revenge will make things right for the victim or family or etc.

E. Other stuff I can't think of.

There is the thought "oh, you're just being a bleeding heart softy with hardened criminals.
What hardens people's hearts in the first place. Yes, there can be people who just don't seem to want to learn, or want to treat others respectfully. They will remain arrogant and disrespectful of their fellow human whatever happens. Perhaps there are some like that.

But surely, wouldn't most humans get it in the first few minutes of realisation that they no longer have control over their own destiny, short term, or long term future. They have to get used to asking for everything, used to a routine set by someone else, food decided by someone else and all the rest of the sorry, frankly embarrassing correctional strategy.

It is embarrassing because I cannot believe how humans can treat other humans, and insist that it works in "learnin' 'em good" when the fact is, it does nothing of the sort.

People give up. That is what happens. People give up thinking that they are really decent and good, or can be, inside themselves. They give up having that given, that presumption of being a decent law abiding citizen.

They give up, because yes they made mistakes. Everyone does in learning. Everyone has their laziness, their misguided and mistaken selfishness. Some people learn quickly; others never do.

I don't have the answer to this problem of jailing people for ages, thinking it will stop crime somehow, or prevent future misdemeanant behaviour.

But it is plain to see that jailing folks for a long time is not it. All it shows is that some humans, perhaps a lot, don't really care for their fellow human. If they did, they'd look closer and see that dignity is what is taken away the moment the cell door clangs shut and is locked.

Perhaps the removal of that dignity and rights is deserved. I'm sure in many cases it is very much deserved. I can't for the life of me (excuse the pun) see how someone like Mr Roofer could be rehabilitated, or protected if he was somehow a changed person, and released into the public domain.

I nearly forgot to mention; not only does prisoner rehab and length of sentencing need a major rethink, but hey, what about why they committed the crimes in the first place? If people were able to go about their lives, earn a decent living, without resorting to desperate measures, I'm sure prisons would be mostly empty.

People like to earn an honest living if they can. Most.

We come full circle back to word crimes. There are crimes of misspelling and bad grammar, tardy punctuation and lazy structure. There must be a certain evil within the boundaries of syntax, context, generalisation and tense confusion, deliberate provocation of fellow citizens even.

But what about the other phantom criminals who designed the dang words in the first place? Huh? What about THEM?

Why is there an l (ell) in the words could, should and would?

Why is misspelled spelled the way it is? What the heck does it need two esses and two ells for? S's and l's? However you are supposed to say it doesn't mean it should be like it to begin with.
And the other ridiculous word spellings. You know the ones. Every time it trips me and I have to grit my teeth as I back space. To cap it all off, though digressing here, is the stupid mouse pad on a laptop that nicks off with your insertion point or whatever it is, and suddenly you are typing somewhere else, or activating some other stuff.

Press that mouse pad de activate before you go crazy. That's my advice.

There are the crimes of whoever decided to make different countries have different versions of English. For crying out LOUD IN A blocked SEPTIC!

Anyone who goes off about the stuff I've said about prison sentences being too long; it's ok to be critical of opinion, but if you disagree that's fine. Come up with the solution yourself then.

Same with spelling and all the rest of word crimes that we have to put up with as we write.

Someone. Please! Start a Go-Fund-Me project to globally unify English usage and the rules. Fix the words that don't need those silent letters.

The world could become a simpler, smoothed brow, lower blood pressure place, for all of us. Even writers who are in prison.

Sparky