Too Fat?

[darroll]

Inmate Ronald Post gained nearly 200 pounds while on death row, and is arguing that possible complications while putting him to death would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

[darroll]

Get a stick.

[Aggie]

I suggested the State of Texas re-use needles to recycle and save taxpayer money.

[Jaylee53]

Sometimes I just don't know what to think....:-/

[Rain]

Wonder how he did it, I thought the food was terrible in those places??

[Serenity]

They are confined in very small cells with no exercise, fed regularly and apparently he has store privileges.

[EddieDingo]

Sounds like the way they raise veal.

I wonder if those prisoners taste tender.

[Aggie]

Bad Dingo

[Serenity]

I read where it took the techs inserting the needles 3 hours to put it in one guy who weighed 250.  I think the problem is - the medical profession is prohibited from killing people. So they are not using skilled medical professionals to do this work.  If they were, they'd do a cut-down and insert a PICC line into the heart.  There is a type of nurse that does this work - there's a little anesthetic to do it and then the person has a direct line in for medication that need immediate distribution. Yes, it would not be comfy to do this on someone huge, but it could be done with anesthetic.  But you're not going to find an anesthesiologist or trained nurse to do this work - they are prohibited by medical ethics.  The people doing this are trained by the prison and are prison employees.  

By the time these needles and everything are used they are dull AND considered hazardous biomedical waste. The types of needles used for these procedures are made to be disposable - they can't be reused safely.  This isn't the old - boil the needle technology.

We would be spared all this nonsense if there were no death penalty.  Largely, I am a death penalty agnostic - there may be a few people who are so horrible there is no other option, but largely, the death penalty is applied unequally to the mentally defective, disabled, and people of color. It is hideously expensive and we'd save tons of money by outlawing it.  

[Serenity]

Steven,

If you do a criminal justice study of the criminal "justice" system you will find it is not very "just."  

There are a number of ways to take a life that are legal - in war, in self-defense, or if you believe you are defending yourself even if you are wrong.  Then there are any number of definitions of criminal homicide (all death of a human by another human - justified or not, is a homicide).  

I profoundly disagree with your stance that a person who kills cannot be rehabilitated.  I have known and worked with a person who killed his spouse during a domestic violence altercation. It was alcohol fueled.  He was a cop.  He did 14 years hard time (it is very hard for a cop) and was reborn in a real way.  He got out of prison and started a treatment program to divert violent men with drug and alcohol problems from violence.  He did a good job. He could not bring back his wife, but he devoted his life to paying back society.

Yes, most criminals are repeat offenders, however, if you look at the criminal population you will find it disproportionately represents the deaf, the mentally impaired, and non-whites.  

As to DNA - it can be compromised.  Anything can be if you only take a look at the fraudlent actions of the head of the forensic lab here in Mass.  

As to rape and torture - half the veterans today would be in jail if we added these to the list. Rape is common in the military - men against women under their command.  And torture is common as well.  In fact, we torture people in prison and call it good.  Guards force inmates to fight.   Guards set up rapes of deaf people by hearing people.  

Life is not nearly as simple as you seem to think it is.  Check out DeafInPrison.com 

[Serenity]

Hi Steven, I can't reply to your reply - sorry.

In 1978 I was savagely attacked by a mugger outside a hospital where I took my daughter's father. It was nothing short of a miracle I was not killed, since that was his intent. It took me a long time to get over - I'm a small woman and even if I could pick my Dad up and carry him around it is not the same when I very large man attacks from behind.

That being said, he did not manage to rape me nor kill me.  He was apprehended by two young footballers from the local religious college who happened to come out of the door.  He was about 6'2" to my 5'3" and we were both white. He was sent back to the mental institution. I had a difficult time with it, did de-sensitization counseling and got on with life.

I was again battered - by another white man - in a predominately black neighborhood around 1985.  After that I got serious and took some martial arts training - enough to learn how to use a kubaton.  However, now I can't take it into any building with a scanner so I stopped. I have learned to walk like a woman on a mission.  

My decendent husband was murdered by a white woman.  

Yes, in prison everyone seems to find god and to get sober.  If prison were actually designed to be rehabiltiative rather than punitive we'd get a better response out of people. Programs where felons are confronted by victims, programs where felons learn to accept responsibility for actions result in less recidivism.  It is also less expensive than keeping people in a supermax.

I'm also unimpressed by the fact that the prison industry (largely privatized now) is one of the largest industries in the country and we jail more people both per capita and in sheer numbers than any other country in the world.  There is something horribly wrong here.

I believe Ghandi said it best, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."  Further, resentment towards those who harmed you is like drinking poison and expecting them to die - it only hurts you.  I can understand it - however, you are harming yourself by holding onto it. 

Wishing you the best...

[Serenity]

Hi Steve,

Well, with all the change that accumulates in my purse it is often capable of being used as a deadly weapon.  LOL  

I have not been threatened in years. At this point in my life I have "the look" that freezes people dead in their tracks. I have used it on the Dean of a Law School and a Judge with equal facility.

I would also fork someone's eyes out with my acrylic nailed fingers in a heartbeat if I needed to. By the time I got some sort of spray bottle out of my purse it would be too late.  My fingers, however, are always at the tips of my arms.  Evil smile...

[darroll]

What about that girl that had on her shirt 'did you ever rape a 38?"