If there were 2,000,000 innocent and only 1 guilty, retrying everyone would not be practical.
Burr Send a noteboard - 05/03/2010 09:22:16 PM
There is some percentage at which it becomes either more practical or more ethical (or both) to release everyone.
It is an important question because of its implications for determining what counts as having been rehabilitated. If you have 100,000 thieves with an average 5% probability of reoffending, then you know about 99,500 of them are rehabilitated and 500 of them aren't, but you can't necessarily identify which ones are which. Is it practical or ethical to continue the imprisonment of 99,500 rehabilitated prisoners just because you can't identify the 500 non-rehabilitated prisoners? If so, then what if the probability of reoffending were even less, so that there were only 1 non-rehabilitated prisoner among two million rehabilitated prisoners? At what percentage does the balance lie?
It is an important question because of its implications for determining what counts as having been rehabilitated. If you have 100,000 thieves with an average 5% probability of reoffending, then you know about 99,500 of them are rehabilitated and 500 of them aren't, but you can't necessarily identify which ones are which. Is it practical or ethical to continue the imprisonment of 99,500 rehabilitated prisoners just because you can't identify the 500 non-rehabilitated prisoners? If so, then what if the probability of reoffending were even less, so that there were only 1 non-rehabilitated prisoner among two million rehabilitated prisoners? At what percentage does the balance lie?
||||||||||*MySmiley*
Only so evil.
Only so evil.
This message last edited by Burr on 05/03/2010 at 09:27:46 PM
A level-of-comfort question regarding imprisonment of mixed innocent and guilty groups.
- 05/03/2010 02:39:53 AM
328 Views
as things stands, I don't think we'd ever reach a level where that'd be necessary oO
- 05/03/2010 03:24:07 AM
206 Views
100%
- 05/03/2010 03:47:31 AM
212 Views
Law of averages says there are certainly many innocent people in prison.
- 05/03/2010 04:09:41 AM
198 Views
Doesn't matter
- 05/03/2010 04:22:19 AM
188 Views
Clarification: X% of them definitely did not meet the standards of reasonable doubt.
- 05/03/2010 09:44:09 PM
172 Views
A relevant question; it seems to hinge on where one draws the line.
- 05/03/2010 04:19:34 AM
176 Views
I never really liked silly questions like this
- 05/03/2010 02:23:36 PM
206 Views
If there were 2,000,000 innocent and only 1 guilty, retrying everyone would not be practical.
- 05/03/2010 09:22:16 PM
178 Views
That's silly though
- 05/03/2010 09:39:53 PM
184 Views
Re: That's silly though
- 05/03/2010 11:11:50 PM
192 Views
Re: That's silly though
- 06/03/2010 12:11:06 AM
175 Views
what does the chance of reoffending have to do with guilt?
- 05/03/2010 10:02:21 PM
164 Views
Debt can be paid off, leaving the question of rehabilitation. *NM*
- 05/03/2010 10:32:38 PM
67 Views
I still don't see the realtionship to guilt
- 05/03/2010 10:59:28 PM
157 Views
Re: I still don't see the realtionship to guilt
- 05/03/2010 11:31:51 PM
171 Views
there is a reason they call it the justice system and not the rehabilation system
- 05/03/2010 11:33:55 PM
188 Views
It's called all kinds of things
- 06/03/2010 12:02:00 AM
186 Views
Re: It's called all kinds of things
- 06/03/2010 05:44:32 AM
176 Views
Well, we aren't going to agree at all (and I DID say it was opinion)
- 07/03/2010 09:00:37 AM
149 Views