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)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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..."
-
-
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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:25PM
I support the use of lethal force against judges that perform this type of crime against humanity.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:28PM
"...and if this works(*), we can make it mandatory for any reason we choose."
Mark my words
(*) Whatever we decide that to mean.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:34PM
Seriously he need to get the approval of people he has violated to get fixed, but I guess stupid is a stupid does
I cannot imaging tey won't vote to snip this judge, but unfortunately for Darwin he has probably already bread
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:40PM (3 children)
When poor quality people breed, bad things happen. Some of the bad things include misery for those very people and their children. Some of the bad things happen to other people who are the victims of crimes perpetrated by people who were raised without a father and thus without proper guidance.
A knee-jerk "that's immoral" reaction to the judge's offer is proof that you have a childishly unrealistic view of the real world. Personally, I hope all you idiots who are so quick to judge that it's "morally wrong" are mugged, raped, or beaten within an inch of your lives, so you can learn the end results of your clueless social justice philosophy. It would serve you right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:44PM
Kenneth Lay [wikipedia.org] had a father and his actions affected more than a single inmate did. Similarly for the founders of Lehman Brothers [wikipedia.org].
Your attitude reeks of "we gotta do it to them because they could do it to us and I wish them to do it upon you if you don't allow me to do it to them". If anyone is being childish, it's you.
I'm ok with you having that mentality but they you don't get to claim the moral higher ground. I guess, you are consistent in that then, you've shown your true colors.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:50PM
Well, that's certainly not violent or a knee-jerk reaction. You've proven yourself to be so much better than those SJWs you criticize!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @07:10AM
So please don't breed then.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by idiot_king on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:55PM (8 children)
I could go on and on for days about how this is exactly what the Nazi Eugenics program was trying to do. But I will spare all of you because I respect the people enough who post here that they will see that automatically. Black men, and to a lesser extent Latinx folk, make up the vast majority of prisoners per capita in the USA. This is a chance for the underlying zombie-corpse White Nationalist and Racist soul of the US to feed on its favorite prey directly.
My question, then, is how many of you knew this would happen in your lifetime? Especially after the election? And moreover, how many of you knew it would happen sooner than later? My worst fears have become realized. I would be literally shaking with rage if I weren't so depressed.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:05PM
Your very best option is to give in to that depression you're whining about, and go step in front of a fast train.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:37PM (4 children)
All humans have an inner chimp, but Blacks and Latinos are genetically predisposed to lack of impulse-control.
They are like Animal from Muppet Babies, still shitting their britches and impulsively barking gibberish at inappropriate moments.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:50PM (2 children)
Heheheh. That's funny coming from a failure like you.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @12:01AM (1 child)
At least he has the courage to post using an ID.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @01:15AM
Amazing what passes for courage around here. Actually sad.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 23 2017, @06:18AM
Eth, a little advice here: there are some things that just aren't funny enough, even to someone with the sensibilities of an amanojaku, to troll about. It makes the attempt fall flat; rather than being a good wheeze, or even shocking, it sounds like, well, shitting your britches and impulsively barking gibberish.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:56PM (1 child)
you must have missed the end of WWII and noticing that the Nazis won and joined the CIA
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @07:14AM
For anybody who thinks this is an overstatement, citation provided: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_paperclip [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @10:53PM (4 children)
Many of these people in jail and prison, waiting to be released, will never EVER become productive members of society, nor will they become decent people. And their children ( if they have children ) are likely to also be a cost to society. Their children will have THEM as role models ... how well do you think THAT is going to work out ? I'll save you the trouble of thinking : it works out very badly indeed, and statistics prove it.
The prisons are packed with bad people. Prisons are not packed with wonderful worthwhile people who were treated unfairly, prisons are packed with people who did things which society has declared illegal. And most of these people knew what they did was illegal and they did it anyway and they will, when they are again free to do so, more than likely do it AGAIN.
It is a good idea for these people not to have children. The children these people don't have will never become a cost to society, will never murder, rape, rob, stab, shoot, or otherwise harm an innocent person.
Only a naive fool would imagine that the upbringing of a child would be good or positive if that child was the child of a person who ends up going to prison one of more times. The real-world data on this shows otherwise. Therefore, in some cases some people are better off not procreating, and the world is also better off. This is the real world, not a dream world in which everyone is a wonderful nice person and there is always a happy ending.
The majority of you people here are mentally still children. You don't know what the real world is like yet you mistakenly believe you are qualified to run the show. Yeah, right. Many millenials don't even have a driver's license or a decent job, never mind a house and a mortgage. Most of you have never fought in a war, have never been mugged, have never had a gun stuck in your face, and in general you've lived sheltered lives so your actual knowledge of the world is severely limited. You think you know a lot more than you really know.
Maybe some of you will lose a loved one because one of these wonderful people you think should be allowed to breed murders your loved one. Then you'd begin to understand what the real deal is. The real deal is that some humans are good, some are bad, and some are so bad that they should never be allowed to be living anywhere near decent people. And you fools think these people should be allowed to breed as though they are the same as people who have never been put in prison ? You don't have a goddamned clue.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:00PM (2 children)
Your rant can be summarized as "if someone as much as looks like they may do something I don't like, we should summarily execute the individual then and there".
To you, the enlightenment [wikipedia.org] is something that just happened to other people, isn't it?
Your ilk represents some of the worst in humanity, congratulations...
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:42PM (1 child)
All that wonderful stuff about enlightenment won't save your stupid naive holier-than-thou ass when some gang idiot shoves a gun in your ribs and pulls the trigger.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @01:42AM
I really wonder what it must be like to live life like such a scared little coward... everything is a threat, no-one can be trusted, everything makes you afraid. The only reason you are advocating for the things you are is because you think your gun is bigger than the other guy, but deep down, you know you got nothing.
I really wonder what it must be like to have to go through life like that...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @02:55AM
I've been mugged, shot at, beaten, robbed, and I still think you're a fucking pussy and an idiot. You and everyone else advocating eugenics in this thread are stupid as all hell. Violent crimes typically net years in prison, who cares about 30 days off the sentence??
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:01PM (9 children)
Suppose tendency for low impulse control and impaired planning ahead is hereditary. Will this move have any effect to lower the amount of violent crimes in the long term?
It does have similarities to a control system with negative feedback and thus supposedly lowering bad behavior over time.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @11:47PM (1 child)
"Suppose tendency for low impulse control and impaired planning ahead is hereditary. Will this move have any effect to lower the amount of violent crimes in the long term?
It does have similarities to a control system with negative feedback and thus supposedly lowering bad behavior over time."
*
*
*
The above is the truth most of the SJW idiots who are commenting here are willfully choosing to ignore. Factor in the environment in which a child grows up to the hereditary bit and you have a recipe for a high probability of "the apple not falling far from the tree", which means the child of a criminal is far more likely to become a criminal too.
The real world is not a fucking Walt Disney movie. You people who imagine everything can be fixed with enough tax dollars and patience are living in a fantasy world. Ask ANY judge, ask ANY cop, ask ANY probation officer. All these people do something you don't do, which is that they deal with the dregs of society in the course of their jobs. If you tried to tell them they were "unenlightened", they would probably look at you and shake their heads and laugh, as they walked away from what they knew was an encounter with a fool.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by darnkitten on Sunday July 23 2017, @03:22AM
On the other hand, my father's family is from a similar background, and he was only one of two extended family members of his generation to hold a job. My father left the town he grew up in, enlisted in the military, where he retired as a senior NCO. Though never particularly successful, he married and had 6 children, all of whom are contributing to society in a variety of areas from public service to healthcare, technology, education and the arts. His cousin stayed in town, and worked all his life to support the rest of the family. He never married, but, of my generation (not counting my family) he helped about half of them at least start higher education. So now, yes, some of them are chronically unemployed, but most work--again in various areas--from fast food to radio and healthcare.
Point being, my family in general was (and still is, though not within my hearing), considered the worst kind of "trash," and would have been considered candidates for sterilization (and might have been, had they been unfortunate enough to end up on the local orphan's home during the wrong period). My father and his cousin were part of the lot, but they broke out of the mold, and had a positive and disproportionate effect, which extends multiple generations and beyond this small rural community.
TL;DR--
--People are not their genes, nor their backgrounds, and, despite their predictive nature, you never know when someone will rise above their origins, because life is more complex than simplistic explanations.
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Sunday July 23 2017, @01:27AM (6 children)
Lead poisoning also causes low impulse control. Guess who is statistically more likely to live in areas contaminated with lead from car exhaust?
Of course, then this little exercise in eugenics will be worthless,
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @02:15AM
citations:
https://www.wired.com/2011/06/the-crime-of-lead-exposure/ [wired.com]
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/opinion/the-toxic-legacy-of-lead-paint.html [nytimes.com]
http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2015/10/even_low_levels_of_lead_poison.html [cleveland.com]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 23 2017, @02:19AM (2 children)
It seems to be a contributing factor but it won't negate the others.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:06AM (1 child)
What others?
It sounds like you wish to absolve the poisoners of any responsibility by claiming the poisoned had some sort of moral failing that allowed their poisoning.
Or, perhaps you mean that there are multiple factors that might push a person to become a career criminal. That much is true, but it suggests that some percentage of the lead poisoned career criminals would have chosen a better route if not for the lead. Lead poisoning clearly leads to diminished capacity. There is no controversy there.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:18AM
Some of the other factors are covered in the original post. I don't absolve anyone, it's a strict finding that lead poisoning can contribute to violent behavior which also implies that this specific is strictly environmental. Fewer or less criminal activity over large populations is likely with less poisoning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 24 2017, @06:49AM (1 child)
Google, Facebook etc hire disproportionately more Asians than whites (who are underrepresented when compared to the USA demographics).
(Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday July 26 2017, @02:12AM
I don't think so much during the time when the lead pollution was at it's worst, Since leaded automotive fuel was effectively banned in '76, the problem has been abating. Of course, there is a delay in seeing the effect since childhood exposure results in a tendency to criminal behavior as an adult.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 23 2017, @06:24AM
Jumping Zarathustra on a triple-barreled rocket pogostick. We have people *who are still alive today* who remember the effects of eugenics policies.
Look, eugenics is one of those things like Communism or laissez-faire capitalism; in *theory* it could work, and be wonderfully productive besides. In practice, human nature is shit, and you'll just end up with genocide. You know, as was committed not 80 years ago in Germany? Aktion T-4 ring a bell for any of you?
Do any of you advocating for this seriously think it'll stop at "violent criminals?" Good grief, this isn't just a slippery slope, it's freaking greased with blood. If you think this won't soon be defined as "anyone the ruling class doesn't like," if you think there will be anything even approaching a just and evenhanded application of sterilization, you're either too naive to breed yourself (see what I did there?) or outright evil and merely pretending.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...