So many talented individuals caught up in the criminal justice system…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/02/1427151/-Harvard-debate-team-loses-to-prison-debate-team
Wonder what they were debating about.
Why is it a surprise that there can be some very smart or talented people who commit crimes serious enough to land them in prison?
Assuming that this was Harvard’s CX [cross-examination] debate team and that they were arguing the current topic, I believe the subject would have been:
“Resolved: The United States should legalize all or nearly all of one or more of the following in the United States: marihuana, prostitution, online gambling, the sale of human organs, physician assisted suicide.”
What an interesting article. The program sounds like a very worthwhile one.
Well done to the inmate team! What a wonderful program Bard has initiated. Too little in this country is done to rehabilitate prisoners and we wonder why the recidivism rate is so high. We are always penny wise pound foolish.
I guess most of the prisoners have a lifetime experience of trying to argue themselves out of trouble.
This is from the Wall Street Journal article linked in the Daily Kos article:
Not so sure about the “penny wise” part – the fear of crime that came with the crime wave and stuck around afterward means that there is still considerable support for (expensive) harsher sentencing, even if costs of the marginal crimes prevented through the harsher sentencing are little compared to the costs of the harsher sentencing.
Some people are talented in ways unrelated to crimes that they commit. Others use their talents for crimes (think of those running businesses in illegal activities, or doing illegal things while engaged in otherwise legitimate business).
^ It’s more expensive to rehabilitate prisoners then doing nothing while they are in prison, so it ends up costing us more in the long run as prisons become revolving doors.
Parliamentary debate then, not cross-X. The Harvard Debate & Speech Society as opposed to the Harvard Debate Council. The latter is the top-notch policy debate team.
I agree to many people are locked up.
but, I see it more as exposing the fact that the best and brightest do not go to Harvard (or any other ivy for that matter)
of course I know debate judging is subjective.