Watch enough “Law and Order” and you’ll inevitably see McCoy offering the trembling (or defiant) wretch something less than a life (or death) sentence, and the accused is usually portrayed as a fool for refusing.
Yet, in this day of the internet and no privacy, isn’t ANY felony conviction a virtual death sentence? Consider: assuming you survive the experience of being in prison (not guaranteed by any means), how can you survive when you get let out? You can’t get a job. You can’t find a place to live. You can’t get a bank account or a credit card (or even a library card, in some places). You have no computer, no wireless access, no phone. How can you survive, except illegally?
“Rehabilitation” has always been a sad joke, but it’s a joke now more than ever. It’s totally impossible to get a “fresh start”; hell, you can’t even get a passport and move away from the country that doesn’t want your criminal ass any more. So I’m wondering: just what do released felons do these days, when any clown can look up everything about them on the internet? How do they survive?
And also: why don’t courts and prosecutors recognize/acknowledge the total destruction of a person’s life that ANY felony conviction brings? I would think life in prison (where you are at least fed, sort of, and housed, sort of) would be preferable to eventually dying, broke, on the street.