posted 2007/06/29 at 19:28
Right now, however, let's focus on actual anniversaries and such here, and it was on this day in 1972 that the Supreme Court first ruled that the death penalty in the United States could constitute cruel and unusual punishment. This decision would be reversed a few years later, of course, but at least for a short while there the United States had no death penalty. These days the only two major industrialized countries that still have the death penalty on the books are the United States and Japan, and if you think the death penalty in the United States is cruel and unusual, go read up on how it's meted out in Japan. I recommend starting with the reports on Amnesty International's Website, which will also educate you on the absolutely horrid conditions in Japanese prisons, which basically haven't been reformed to any great extent for nearly a century now. The next time anyone tries telling you that this nation needs to punish its criminals harder and toughen up the prisons, print him or her out a copy of Amnesty International's reports on Japanese prisons, and then tell him or her that the rate of recidivism in Japan is nearly the same as it is here. On that note, let's play the friday5.org Friday Five.
1. What’s something you wear only on special occasions, and when was the last time?
I have a Tori Amos t-shirt that I got from a company that used to advertise in the back pages of Rolling Stone back in the mid-1990s that was sold during her tour in support of Boys for Pele. The t-shirt is black with the words "RECOVERING CHRISTIAN" printed on the front in huge white letters, the reference being from her song "In the Springtime of His Voodoo." I used to have the t-shirt in my regular rotation, but then whenever I wore it into the Student Union at UT, I would invariably get a few Christians who would come up to me and ask me what my problem with Christianity is. I took the shirt out of my rotation after that, but I'd still wear it to campus Halloween parties as a cheap "costume."
2. What’s something you consume only on special occasions, and when was the last time?
For some strange reason that dates back to before my birth, we Shannons always have a dinner of Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes (along with the Shannon family staple of Wheat Thins and Bar-Scheeze, a cheese spread made by a restaurant near my folks' childhood homes) every Christmas Eve. When I went vegetarian I kind of abstained from this dinner for a while, but once we got vegetarian meat substitutes in our local supermarkets, my Mom's been kind enough to make me vegetarian meatballs every Christmas Eve since.
3. Who’s someone you see only on special occasions, and when was the last time?
Given how estranged I am from my non-immediate family, I'll have to say Lara whenever there's a dance game tournament that I feel up to going to. I really wish I saw her more often that that, though.
4. From now on, you will commemorate every year on this date something that happened to you in the past twenty-four hours! What will it be?
I am really blanking here, because today's been kind of blah so far, except that I played dance games for the first time in nearly two months earlier this afternoon. Let me push the time frame back a little more than twenty-four hours, then, because yesterday afternoon I got word that I'm going to be interviewed for a job I'd really like to get here soon.
5. What’s a unique special occasion you share with just a few people you know?
I'm blanking again. There aren't even any special occasions within the family I can think of now. Well, since it was just this past week, I'll say the anniversary of Rowan's death, since that was an occasion, albeit a somber one, for the whole family.
The Japanese Penal System is not intended to reform offenders. It is intended to serve as a deterrent to prevent people from commiting crimes in the first place.
According to Wikipedia, 1 in 136 United States citizens were incarcerated as of 2005. The best data I could estimate for Japan based on number of people in prison and approximate population was about 1 in 2500 for 1990, but I don't think that that figure has changed too dramatically. And Japan has a much higher conviction rate than America, over 99%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_United_States#Prison_system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_system_of_Japan
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=what+is+the+population+of+japan%3F&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
http://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwple/9907001.html
There may be other reasons for this besides the prison system itself, but on the basis of keeping people out of prisons to begin with, Japan has clearly superior results.
One other note: I think there are a hundred times more human rights attrocities taking place within the United States health care system than within Japanese prisons.
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon