Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Quote of the Day

When prisoners are released from prison, they often say that they have paid their debt to society. This is absurd, of course: crime is not a matter of double-entry bookkeeping. You cannot pay a debt by having caused even greater expense, nor can you pay in advance for a bank robbery by offering to serve a prison sentence before you commit it. Perhaps, metaphorically speaking, the slate is wiped clean once a prisoner is released from prison, but the debt is not paid off.

- Theodore Dalrymple

2 comments:

Dan in Philly said...

This quote reminds me of a great Sci-Fi short story called "Time in Advance" where society offered people the option to work on a penal colony (I think on Mars) with a high death rate in advance of the crime they were planning to commit. The thinking was by doing this, many of the pre-prisoners would either die or change their minds, and the overall crime rate reduced.

I suppose it makes more sense than saying someone has paid his debt to society by serving time in arrears.

Michael Wade said...

Dan,

Now there's a good argument for space exploration!

Michael