(c) by Mark Dempsey
A previously published editorial of mine got some comments that are startling, if only because one commenter who read the article, simply did not comprehend the argument. It made no difference in his thinking.
Here are some comments:
Keith Olsen says:
September 14, 2024 at 8:03 am
“DO PRISONS PREVENT CRIME?”
Short answer is YES,
Think of all the crimes that don’t get committed because people don’t want to end up in prisons.
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Another commenter answered Keith:
Adam Eran says:
September 15, 2024 at 3:19 pm Keith, you’re under the impression that fear is the sole human motivation. It’s a powerful one, I’ll grant you, but hardly the only one. The lower crime rates that accompany lower incarceration rates in France and Canada are evidence to the contrary. There’s not nearly as much incarceration, yet crime is lower than the seven-times-higher incarceration US. How is that possible? The studies that find crime diminishes when people are treated better also contradict your conclusion. One example not mentioned in the article: the Swiss legalized opiates, including heroin, distributing the drug at reasonable prices from (legal) clinics. Crime declined 85% around the clinics. So both fear (being busted for opiates) and crime diminished. There are too many examples like this to take your hasty conclusion seriously.
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