The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Opinion

October 30, 2009

How frightful! Our justice system has gone awry

Here are some thoughts from a guy who is sitting on pins and needles waiting for the new health care reform legislation to be settled. And all I can say is: “Ouch!”

Obviously this is not something that is being taken lightly by our government officials. In both the House and Senate, I’m sure each individual is trying to add on some kind of garbage that will benefit his or her constituents rather than just worry about a good health care plan.

But what will be the final outcome? Public option or no public option? Having the public option already has scared some people — people who have stock in major health insurance companies. Those stocks values are dropping.

I was discussing reasonably priced health care plans with Herald Business Writer Michael Roknick recently and we decided on the best option of all. When ever you have some kind of health problem you can’t pay for, simply go out and commit a crime and get thrown in prison. That way the taxpayers will cover most of the cost of your health care.

And talk about expensive. The prison system also has to pay for guards to take prisoners to doctors or hospitals.

So if you commit crimes against society, society takes care of you. What kind of justice is that?

ä Talk about a failed justice system. How about the situation involving death-row murderer Kenneth Biros over in Ohio?

Biros, convicted of the heinous murder and cutting to pieces of a young Hubbard woman, received a delay in his execution because a U.S. District Court judge in Cincinnati ruled that lethal injection violates his rights as cruel and unusual punishment.

How sad is that? He kills and chops up a person and we’re worried whether his rights are violated by getting a needle stuck in his arm that might miss a vein. That’s happened to me donating blood and it’s not a big deal.

The Ohio attorney general is trying to get that stay overturned and hopefully he will be successful.

But this demonstrates how messed up our justice system really is. Prisoners have far too many rights. In this country, they have nice clean facilities, food, exercise equipment and great libraries. Of course there’s also health care. Some have loving cellmates as well. (OK, that might not be considered a benefit to most of us.)

I have always believed that when you sin against society, you have no rights. Centuries ago they had the right idea. If you violated the rules of the clan, you were sent away to live out your life on your own. If you returned, you were killed.

Today, the world is too populated for that although we could force them to live in Detroit.



Criminals should be thrown in a hole with a dirt floor. No books, no basketball hoops, no other human contact other than slipping in their food and water. Some other countries are much less accommodating than we. Maybe if we quit treating criminals so nicely we would have less criminal activity.

And when it comes to murder, there is one true justice. That person should be executed the same way he or she killed another person. That, or the murderer could volunteer to help society by being used as a guinea pig for scientific testing for finding cures for fatal diseases.



Now that would not only save on the number of laboratory rats that we kill, it would also help out in the long run on the costs of health care.

Now that’s justice!



The Herald’s Lynn Saternow writes this column each Saturday for the Opinion page.

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