Originally Posted by markharf

I don't know enough about the facts of the case to have a strong opinion in one direction or another. I do wonder what purpose would be served by a longer sentence: would it dissuade this woman from getting involved with abusive people or using illegal substances? Would it improve her cognitive functioning? Would it dissuade others from driving while impaired? Keep other people safe by keeping her off the streets? (although if so, for how long?)

I really wonder about this. Sometimes I work with people who've done lots of prison time, and they don't seem any safer to themselves or those around them (including me) than people who've skated all their lives. I work with a lot of people who've suffered almost unimaginable abuse during their childhoods or as adults, and sometimes giving them prison time seems to merely confirm their views, therefore their lifestyle choices and responses. When we think about using threats of negative consequences (e.g., serving time) as a means to alter anti-social behaviors (say, driving while inebriated and potentially killing an innocent), it seems to me worth noting that this sort of threat really means little to your average enraged and inebriated developmental 9-year-old, no matter what her chronological age.

What's more, even if such people are imprisoned early, sooner or later they're back on the streets--driving, raising kids, getting married, facing choices about substance abuse. What then? How often does prison really teach the desired lesson? In this particular case, I'm thinking what she really needed earlier in her life was exactly what she's getting now--a highly structured program aimed at rebuilding her actions, cognitions and emotional functioning in a more pro-social form. If she'd gotten that early in life, maybe none of this would have had to happen.

Or maybe I'm just a starry-eyed idealist. That's ok. And maybe she's not going to stick with the program--she'll just go through the motions for a while before busting loose and wreaking more havoc. It's just that in the knee-jerk reaction (which I happen to share: "How the hell could they sentence her to a single day for killing someone?") it's worth also thinking about our overall goals, and what we can do to move ourselves closer to those goals. Prison might not fit the bill.

Sez I, at least.

Mark