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The ACLU of Tennessee has criticized a judge's sentence reduction deal for inmates. Judge Sam Benningfield signed an order permitting a 30-day sentence reduction for male inmates who agree to have vasectomy and female inmates who agree to get the birth control implant Nexplanon, which prevents pregnancy for four years.
The program is voluntary. However, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee has condemned the program, calling it "unconstitutional." [...] But Benningfield, who declined to speak to NBC News, told News Channel 5 that he is trying to encourage "personal responsibility" among inmates, who will not "be burdened with children" when they are released. "This gives them a chance to get on their feet and make something of themselves," Benningfield told the station.
Since the program began, 32 women have received the birth control implant and 38 men have agreed to have a vasectomy, News Channel 5 reported. It was not immediately clear how many men have undergone the surgery.
Inmates can get two days knocked off their sentences for attending a course about the risks of babies born addicted to opioids:
America's opioid crisis is expanding to a new class of victims—unborn children. Infants are being born with symptoms of withdrawal, also known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS. In the last decade, states like Tennessee have seen a ten-fold rise in the number of babies born with NAS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:21PM (34 children)
In a world where life expectancy is 70 years, sell your reproductive potential for a month of freedom. Not even close to an equitable exchange.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:39PM (5 children)
I guess that depends how old you are and/or if you already have (enough) children.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:54PM (4 children)
Who doesn't already have "enough" children?
It's not like we're some island with sub-1k population, struggling to avoid inbreeding, so it's not a real problem if you fail to pass on your genes. We've moved past the economic imperative to have kids of your own to look after you in your old age, because now everybody's kids pay taxes to look after everybody. And if we see an overall population shortage, we can just keep bringing in immigrants to make up the difference.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by unauthorized on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:27PM (2 children)
"Suppress your natural desires for my economic needs and political ideology" is one of the most fucked up things I've heard today.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:36PM (1 child)
If you can hear anonymous posters, you should be able to identify them and lead a task force dedicated to capturing and bringing them to justice.
(read this in shitpost voice)
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(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:58PM
"If you can hear anonymous posters, you should be able to identify them and lead a task force"
.
.
.
Why do you need a task force ?
Because you're too much of a pussy to deal with someone on a one-on-one basis, that's why.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:53PM
True.
BTW, how's that border wall coming along?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by bradley13 on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:46PM (16 children)
Kind of a self-selecting Darwin award, wouldn't you say?
Seriously, why not? No one is forced to do this, and a little eugenics will do the species no harm.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:00PM (5 children)
"a little eugenics will do the species no harm"
Please take a little time to think about the moral implications of such a statement. Also, what criteria should be used to decide fitness in the scenario(s) you're envisioning? Eugenics does not have a rosy history...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:34PM (4 children)
"Please take a little time to think about the moral implications of such a statement."
Why ? Do ghetto scum who commit murder or rape take time to think about moral implications ?
SJW fools like you sicken me. Just wait until someone you love is raped or killed, you'll gain a better understanding of the real world after that.
Not everything that's politically incorrect is a bad idea, but if course you actually have to THINK to understand this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:38PM (2 children)
That's enough internet for you today, kiddo...
While you're right that not everything that is politically incorrect, is also bad idea, we've gone through multiple rounds of trying to apply eugenics in the past as a species and as a society. It has never worked out well.
Until you are willing to be culled, do not call for the culling of others. You may think you are part of the in-group today, but trust me, you either aren't or will find yourself part of the out-group very soon...
Now hand over your crayons and go play nicely in the sandbox.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @12:06AM (1 child)
"That's enough internet for you today, kiddo..."
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Go fuck yourself, you sad little pussy boy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @04:56PM
Hey troll, get off the ney and experience the "real world" which you have such a skewed perspective of.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @03:39AM
The claim that SJWs, as you call them, don't know anyone who has been killed or raped shows you up as spectacularly ignorant.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:03PM
Why not? Well, one thing that springs to mind is that this comes harrowingly close to cruel and unusual punishment. If I'm not mistaken, the Bill of Rights has something to say about that. As for eugenics, you are welcome to self-select yourself out of the gene pool at any time.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by unauthorized on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:22PM
Eugenics is the greatest idea humanity should never implement. Although we can accomplish many wonderful things in it, it will be misused by the powers that be with absolute certainty.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:28PM (2 children)
Alright. We shall start with those who are promoting eugenics and see how it goes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:41PM
Modpoints for insightful, my kingdom for modpoints for insightful!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @07:54PM
We already have Eugenics. From the Left.
Many severely mentally disabled people are not allowed to have sex. The mechanism is the Left's favorite tool for prohibition: Consent.
Since they do not have the ability to consent, they cannot have sex. Not even with someone else who consents, because the mentally disabled person cannot, by definition, consent.
Now, I happen to somewhat agree with this approach. But lets not kid ourselves. Eugenics is in play, the only question is how far will/can it go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @01:38AM
The problem is that these aren't necessarily people that have been convicted of committing serious crimes. They're anybody that's sentenced by this judge. I'm guessing that if you look at the sentences he's handing them down, this "shortened" sentence probably will wind up being about what the previous sentence was like, just with the added bonus of sex organ mutilation for the men.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday July 23 2017, @03:17AM (1 child)
>No one is forced to do this
Did you miss the part where they stay in jail 30 days longer if they refuse than if they accept?
30 days of jail is coercive. That's why we impose jail sentences, because they're coercive.
(Score: 2) by julian on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:13PM
I don't think that's the right way to look at it.
They have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to n days in prison. The judge then says, if you get a vasectomy we will make your sentence n-30 days. That's different than the proposition: your sentence is n days, if you *don't* get a vasectomy we will make your sentence n+30 days.
I don't think this program is a good idea, but it's not bad for the reason you give.
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday July 23 2017, @03:20AM
>a little eugenics will do the species no harm.
History disagrees with you.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday July 23 2017, @06:27AM
So the US is going to reintroduce eugenic sterilisation [wikipedia.org]? It's disturbing enough that this was still being done in the 1980s (rather than stopping at Nuremberg in 1946), but now they're reintroducing it?
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:03PM (8 children)
Well I think the point is that both of these options are temporary.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:35PM (7 children)
That's not true. Vasectomies cannot always be reversed in a very significant percentage of cases. Thus, this Judge is committing genocide and deserves to be executed.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:49PM (3 children)
The legal definition of genocide [preventgenocide.org]
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide [preventgenocide.org]
The action doesn't show intent to destroy a particular group listed under the definition. The order applied to all inmates, not black inmates, for example.
It doesn't satisfy II(d) because the measure is voluntary, not imposed. If the inmates eschew the offer of a 30 day reduction of a lawfully imposed sentence (inb4 govt is a violently imposed monopoly), they do not face any consequences and continue to be fed 3 square meals a day.
So it isn't genocide. That's important because watering down the definition of genocide is not a good idea.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by http on Sunday July 23 2017, @03:42AM (1 child)
A prisoner facing sentencing is not in a position to negotiate as an equal. Calling it "voluntary" is quite the novel corruption.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @11:07AM
Good point.
Of course, that goes for any and all actions by prisoners that will take off time of their sentence, including "time off for good behaviour".
Basically, you get that later reward if you show you can fit in worth an authoritarian structure and know your place at the bottom of it.
So: is any sentence reduction wrong? If not, what distinguishes this one from others?
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:36AM
Except it does.
And making blackness part of it will be problematic because everyone knows blackness is a problem but we just shouldn't make it a criteria. Right? Right?? Just being sarcastic.
Without going into the fact that black people are more likely to be incarcerated or that they actually represent a large percentage of the convicts, let us ask this question:
"If one of those convictions gets overturned in upper court, will the judge go through vasectomy?"
I am very well aware that for all the lofty ideals of society that jail is just a correctional facility, in reality the raison d'être for jail is to keep the male population that doesn't agree with the system, out of it. Letting them not breed is just another step towards it. So in part I agree that this is not genocide per say. But do we have any checks and balances to see if this judge is actually NOT punishing a group of people based on some criteria that might make this whole ordeal qualify as a genocide? The sad answer is a resounding no. As a judge he is in a particularly powerful position with almost no oversight and impunity whatsoever to do whatever he or she pleases. Unless there is a law that specifically asks for such punishment, judiciary really really must restrain itself from passing ridiculous orders.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:21PM (2 children)
Oh come on -- the world has no need for more humans. At some point, we are going to have to get ahead of exponential population growth. It would be nice if we did that before every square meter wasn't covered with people stacked 10 high.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @01:43AM (1 child)
And that's not going to happen. This judge is in the US, the US has a population that would be falling if not for the waves of immigrants that continue to come here. We're in no risk of running out of either space or other resources.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday July 23 2017, @03:17PM
While entire house is one fire: Oh look, that spot under the sink isn't burning yet!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:42PM
Ok, we'll throw in a bucket of fried chicken and a couple of watermelons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @01:36AM
Worse than that, the implants available to these women naturally wear off in a few years, whereas a vasectomy is essentially permanent. Sure, some people can have them reversed, but it's definitely not something you want to count on.
It's about time we did something about all the pro-woman favoritism that's all the rage in American society.