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Criminals should pay damages
And the cost of their imprisonment
The recent case of a young mother being
kidnapped and raped over six days by three men in Limerick, has
started me thinking about how such crimes should be redressed.
(1) When a crime involves damage to a
person or property, the guilty party should be taken to task on
behalf of the victim/s, by the states legal system, and full
financial, and or other means of redress, be extracted as an integral part of their punishment and atonement.
(2) On the matter of imprisonment,
those who are sent to jail place a huge financial burden on society. They
therefore should be made liable for the entire cost of their
imprisonment.
In 2010 a year of imprisonment cost the overburdened taxpayer €77,000
per inmate. This burden on society accrues at the same time as the prisoner is
housed, fed, has full medical care, and in many instances is
educated, more security and comfort than many members of society
enjoy.
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