Ordinary Banana

I have a proposal that instead of prison we should be able to make people wear a t-shirt 24/7 saying their crime if there wasn't violence involved. (And restitution, obviously.) "Asshole liar."https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/1098076198255632386 …

Okay, fine. I just think it would be funny to interact with all these different t-shirt people randomly during your day. Imagine an "asshole liar" trying to sell you a car.

It is weird though that we use prison as a one size fits all punishment. I totally get physically removing someone if they're a stabber. Then they can't stab you. But like white collar crime or fraud? Make 'em wear the t-shirt and pay restitution. Prisons cost money.

I'd be curious if we could ever come to a consensus over the goals we have for the criminal justice system. For me it's basically restitution if possible and the cessation of any further threat to the public. For many crimes, merely making sure the reputation stuck is enough. ?

over the years I’ve really come to think that retribution/revenge is important

it is, but not for the "benefit" of the person that we're punishing, but to set incentives for the people who have not yet done the same crime this is game theory 101; if we make the mugger pay $10 for stealing $10, then the math becomes "heads I keep $10, tails I get $0"

I think it has value even beyond deterrence (general or specific) but it’s squishy and messy