Where does this idea of incarceration come from?
In the Bible, there are two basic punishments for two basuc types of crimes:
Property crimes are punished by restitution, slavery (until both compensation and punitive damages are paid — the thief pays back what he stole to restore his victim, plus 3 or 5 more as punishment), etc.
Violent crimes are punished like-for-like. E.g., death penalty for murderers, physical punishment for assaults, etc.
This idea of the criminal owing “a debt to society” is thinly-veiled statism....have you ever stopped to consider just how odd it is that, in the false “debt-to-society” paradigm, the debtor is provided for by the entity to whom he ostensibly owes the debt!
The car thief didn’t steal from “society” (i.e., everybody), and “society” (everybody) shouldn’t be taxed to feed, clothe and house him in an environment where he may very well learn nothing more than more skills about the “craft” that put him there in the first place.
No, he stole from the car’s owner. He must work — two or three jobs, if necessary — to a) pay his own rent, groceries and bills, and b) restore the car’s owner (restoration) and c) perhaps to put gas in his car for the next six months (punishment).
Frank A. Golubski
