The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law
Chapter 5: The Three “R”s
Page 2: Removal
NARRATOR
“Removal” means just that: The offender is removed from society.
This purpose doesn’t care about reforming you or making you think twice. No, this purpose is all about removing a DANGER from our midst.
Axe-wielding killer looking down at you
If someone is a threat to public SAFETY, we protect the public by getting rid of the threat.
Stone prison cell
Better to just keep him behind bars…
Man kicked out of walled city, looking back at man on ramparts shaking fist angrily
Or exile him…
Guillotine
Or kill him…
…so he cannot hurt society again.
I fail to see how this is “uncivilized”. Unpleasant perhaps, but no more uncivilized than plumbing.
I think the distinction here is between moral and practical reasoning, not civilized and uncivilized reasoning.
Of course, there’s all sorts of questions of method and duration and whatnot that we could argue about ’til the sun goes out, and if the species survives that long in a remotely recognizable form probably *will*.
It does reduce the person to the status of an affliction: something to be cured, and then ignored.