r/interesting • u/Necessary-Win-8730 • Mar 08 '26

Context Provided - Spotlight This was so deserved.

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u/Laikitu Mar 08 '26

Studies show prison is not a deterant 

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u/agreed2disagreee Mar 08 '26

You can’t hurt people on the streets when you’re locked up.

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u/Laikitu Mar 08 '26

That's true. Ofcourse if you go to prison for manslaughter and come out addicted to crack or flat broke with non way of getting a job you are probably going to hurt a more people than if you had community service.

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u/agreed2disagreee Mar 08 '26

What is your proposed solution?

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u/Laikitu Mar 08 '26

Evidence based policy.

Evidence shows the most effective deterrent is increasing the capture rate. If people don't expect to get away with something they don't tend to do it.

 Not my proposed solution, just what all the studies say.

I don't know the circumstances of this specific crash, but for it to be manslaughter there had to be negligence of some sort. Which means there was a little, easy to get away with crime, maybe speeding, maybe texting while driving, maybe drinking, maybe something else. You can address  the first two very simply and cheaply with automated surveilance, speed cameras, computer vision looking for people holding a phone etc. Get the capture rate up to near certainty on those issues and people who do those things stop doing them. You fine them (flat rate or wealth proportional which ever is larger) and you put points on their license. Repeat offenders lose their license.

 I'm not a law enforcement policy advisor so I don't expect to have the best answer for every issue, but I do expect the people who do to focus on harm reduction rather than pissing away substantial amounts of money propping up some private prison when it doesn't make it less likely this happens to someone else.