Quote Originally Posted by Johanna
If Russians feel that criminals must be severely punished - isn't a long sentence of hard labour in Siberia a pretty grim sentence that would satisfy the public, and deter the criminals? After 10 - 15 years of that the criminal is probably "reformed". Plus he has done something good for society by building a road, mining coal etc.
Wouldn't the European human rights activists rush in and say we can't use the labour of convicts? You know, I'm starting to have second thoughts... Because if those people don't work then it's the tax-payer's money that is spent on maintaining their worthless lives! I am talking here about people who have committed specially atrocious crimes - murdered a lot of people, etc. Do you know about Chikatilo? He murdered about 50 people, here's a link to the wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Chikatilo No matter how human I am, I don't think he deserved to live or could reform. Therefore, it would appear that death penalty should be available but only in the cases of utmost necessity.