I particularly like and agree with that third paragraph. Why didn’t I think of that??? ((slapping his own antlers!)
Seriously, I did think of another possibility.
Althougth I certainly support stringent sentences quickly applied for major crimes, I do have a problem with the death penalty in some cases. Where the guilt is admitted or blatantly obvious, fine, but where there are some questions, I hate the fact that some innocent people have been executed...
With that in mind, a modest proposal...
Approach serious crime from the added perspective of civil law. Capitol criminals and other major criminals have broken the “social contract.” They have broken the coda of a civil society. As such, they have forfeited their right to live in our society.
Let’s let them live in the one they have chosen.
Key West is not the last island in the Florida Keys. It is simply where the road ends.
Why not build a concrete “barracks” type set of buildings on an unoccupied island 15 miles from Key West. It would have rooms, beds, kitchen facilities, and that’s about it.
There would be no walls, no cells, no guard towers, because there would be no guards. Prisoners condemned to live there would run it themselves. A month’s supply of food and new prisoners would be dropped off every 30 days. Water would come in on a pipeline. Laundry would be by scrubbing their clothes in the surf. There would be no classes or attempts at rehabilitation, because these prisoners do not want to be rehabilitated.
All “management,” operations, etc. would be by the prisoners themselves, with no input from the Bureau of Prisons. The only guards would be on a relatively small Coast Guard cutter type boat that would circle the island to prevent anyone approaching to try to evacuate a prisoner or a prisoner swimming away. Monthly supplies would be packaged in such a way as to prevent the building of any sort of flotation device.
The entire small island would have a very strict set of prisoner-agreed-upon rules, or no rules at all. It would be up to them. They have violated their right to live among us.... so they will live among their own kind.
If a prisoner steals, they handle it. If prisoners rape one another, they handle it. If a prisoner kills another prisoner, they handle it. There is no worry about assaults on guards or the killing of guards, because there are no guards on the island.
If a sentence is commuted or reversed, they are evacuated at the next monthly supply run.
Basic medicine would be provided, as well as telephone contact with a doctor. If they die, they die. Burials would be at sea, setting them adrift from the beach.
It would be very inexpensive to run, and a place no one would ever want to go to.
If some criminals choose an entirely anti-social life, why not give it to them?