How Long is Long Enough?

The other day, Colin Thatcher was granted day parole. This means the convicted murderer will be permitted to live in a halfway-house and be allowed to come and go during the day. Thatcher was sentenced in 1984 to 25 years to life in prison, and has therefore served over 21 years of that sentence. For those who do not know, he was convicted of killing his wife, JoAnn Wilson. There was a large amount of evidence against him, including a gasoline receipt and a potential accomplice who wore a wire against him. There had also been a previous attempt on JoAnn's life, although no one was formally charged due to lack of evidence. Because Thatcher was a politician and because he has always maintained his innocence, there have been several in-depth examinations into the case. I have not heard a single report that believed Thatcher was innocent. So, this man is guilty for having killed his wife and has never admitted guilt or apologized. Why should we let him out of prison?

Why shouldn't we let him out? I can think of no one who benefits from continuing with his punishment. How likely is it that he will commit the crime again? Not very. How many potential murderers have been deterred by his incarceration? Unlikely that any have. Can he be rehabilitated? There is no basis for rehabilitation. He was an angry, jealous, greedy bastard who would rather kill his ex-wife than have to deal with her. The only thing prison offers is a means to punish individuals that have committed crimes. He has spent 21 years in prison, and I am not suggesting that this makes up for the life he took. However, continued punishment benefits no one while consuming taxpayers dollars.

The fact is, Colin Thatcher knew before he took Wilson's life that if he was caught and convicted, he would go to prison. That did not stop him. It also unlikely that his punishment stopped any other attempts at spousal murder by other individuals. Unfortunately, it is impossible to prevent crimes born from rage and passion and jealousy. So all we have left is punishing these people by locking them until we feel they should be allowed free. Basically, this is all arbitrary. We decide that he has done something wrong, so we restrict his movements, make him wear the same clothes every day, and feed him meatloaf once a week for 21 years. That's all we can do. We cannot prevent crimes like this, we cannot make it better after it happens. All we can do is punish those who commit the crimes. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. Thatcher deserved every moment behind bars for leaving his own children motherless. I'm just tired of people thinking that putting these people in prison actually helps society, as opposed to merely satisfying our desire to punish those who have done wrong.