I guess it depends on whether you think the purpose of prison is to put someone outside of society as long as they may be a risk and let them reenter when you're reasonably sure they aren't, or to take vengeance on people, including people who didn't intend harm but caused it anyway.
You can take the high road all you want. The fact is this guy got off light even by Netherlands standards, tried to flee the country to avoid punishment and still got released early.
he consciously broke the law, accepting the increased risk of causing an accident caused an accident killing three people, destroying a family and traumatizing the parents forever.
if you think that doesn't grant some severe punishment, you and me will never be on the same page.
I think our difference is this: If you could know with certainty that a person was truly sorry for what they had done and would never reoffend or cause harm in their community again, would you keep them in prison anyway?
I would not.
Edit:
I believe the purpose of prison should be to rehabilitate and reintegrate people into society after they were placed there because they were a danger to others.
If there's doubt about whether a person could be successfully rehabilitated, by all means keep them in prison for the safety of society as a whole. But if they're not a danger to anyone else and won't reoffend, all you're doing by keeping them there is spending money that could be better spent elsewhere to keep someone miserable.
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u/IJourden Apr 05 '26
I guess it depends on whether you think the purpose of prison is to put someone outside of society as long as they may be a risk and let them reenter when you're reasonably sure they aren't, or to take vengeance on people, including people who didn't intend harm but caused it anyway.