You're going to find plenty of arguments that are based in sentiment and emotion, and feelings of revenge/justice on subjects like this - such as "murder can never be forgiven, a life can never be restored" etc.
But unfortunately, life is painted in shades of grey. That's the reality.
I don't think every single person involved in a killing should be in a cage for the rest of their lives. There are always circumstances. Some people who commit murder actually are making an idiotic mistake, or were caught up in circumstances they were not mature enough to cope with. In those cases, it is possible that a person can be rehabilitated, can fully comprehend what they did, and do feel as much remorse as someone possibly can.
There are people who made the ultimate mistake and killed someone, who HAVE spent the rest of their life doing everything they can for society, to make as much compensation as a human being can. It would be useless for everyone, except the revengers, to keep certain people locked up in a kennel.
Having said that.
I am very skeptical of a person like Lennon's killer, not because John Lennon was famous - but because most cases of celebrity stalking and murder seem to involve a certain kind of premeditation that probably indicates a personality truly bent in a particular way.
In these cases, long after the crime is committed, keeping the perpetrator in a cage does little other than make people feel some idea of justice is being served. But they may also not be appropriate for release into society. It's these cases where I feel it's more ethical to keep a certain number of such persons in a form of asylum, separated from the population, but not caged. Such people may even be able to feel genuine remorse for what they did - but can't be trusted with living in the general population.
i agree that there are people who should not be released, but these indivudulas do not belong in prison. if it's clear someone is unfit to ever be allowed to be free, then prison, which should be rehabilitative, is not the place for them. they belong in mental hospitals.
Yeah, the US is pretty twisted in that it wants to see prison as a place of punishment and everlasting revenge on people who do bad things. But here is an analogy - an individual living consumed by a need for revenge their entire life becomes deranged. And I think that it scales up. A society that, as a whole, lives with the need for revenge, that doesn't end, becomes deranged as a group. As a culture. We cannot continue to play lip service to prison and punishment as 'rehabilitative' then go around treating it for all practical purposes as an method of revenge and ongoing torment so that we can feel 'better' about someone 'getting what they deserve'. Correctional facilities should in fact be correctional, with time served limited to something that is not the balance of a person's life. And people who cannot be released into the general population should, until we someday have a better and more ethical solution, be sequestered in asylum.
