LETTER: Prison system doesn’t work

Editor,

Jon Cox missed the point of capital punishment in his column Feb. 16. I admit it has been used too easily and carelessly, but the purpose of capital punishment is to remove from our society people who are deemed unfixable or incurable.

The prison system doesn’t work as it is supposed to. The prison system is set up to rehabilitate criminals, obviously it doesn’t work. There are just times in this life when we as a society have to say, this person cannot be rehabilitated and will always be a threat to society. You might say, “Well then let’s lock them up for life.” But people break out of prison. Look back at the times when mass murderers broke out. What did they do? They killed again. Do you want to take that chance?

Personally, I believe that life in prison is a more severe penalty then death, but there are people that just shouldn’t be allowed to live anymore. I am not pretending that I should be allowed to say who that might be, but that is why we have a justice system, so that we may decide these things as a community.

Aaron Hanks