i'm a little further left than your average person. i get that.

but, i actually want to abolish the entire concept of criminal law, in favour of a purely tort based system, which is actually the system that the english used before the romans showed up. i fully reject the concept of state punishment. what i accept are the ideas of restitution and the ideas of community safety.

so, jails should not be places where people are sent for punishment, but rather places where we put people that we think pose a threat to public safety that cannot be ameliorated via reintegrative policies. it follows that jails should essentially be hospitals.

almost everything else should be dealt with via a systems of fines, reintegration policies and community service.

so, i'm not cherry-picking on this, actually. i mean, yeah, it's how the system works. but, i'm a liberal on crime - and there's a consistency on the point.