# Why not let prisoners kill themselves? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 2, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584 "2012-02-02T21:50:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584/81 "2012-02-06T03:24:02Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Which is more compassionate - putting someone in jail for the rest of their life, or allowing them the option of a painless, quick death at a time of their own choosing? Excellent question. It asks us to consider the welfare of prisoners. LWOP is pretty cruel, IMO, but it’s not as if there is absolutely no possibility of a person regaining their freedom. If innocent a prisoner could have their conviction overturned. If appropriate a prisoner might receive executive clemency. So there is some hope, however slight. In any case, I don’t think the state should ever give up on a citizen. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584/82 "2012-02-06T05:10:49Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > And the government never kills anyone anyway. It always falls to some government employee, an actual person, to carry out the job. And doing such a job can change a person, and usually not for the better. They should just find a serial killer already in the prison, and make him the official executioner (under strict supervision.) The job gets done, and the executioner enjoys it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584/83 "2012-02-06T05:42:37Z")
Yes, our justice system could really use a dash of vigilantism to spice it up a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584/84 "2012-02-06T15:09:56Z")
Senator Hang 'em High’s [**an “asshole,”**](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/f-bomb-dropping-mp-defends-his-verbal-attack-on-tory-senator-boisvenu/article2324074/) NDP MP Pat Martin says. Having come under fire from the prime minister for such language, Martin concedes that it would have been better to have called him an “Honorable Asshole.” > [@](#): > > . . . “I stand by my assessment of the Senator and my reaction to his outrageous remarks,” he says. “If his grief clouds his judgment to such an extent, he has no business crafting criminal justice policy.” > > Mr. Martin notes – using another expletive – that next week is National Suicide week. > > “And 90 per cent of suicides in prison are in fact by hanging,” he says. “What he said is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever heard from a member of Parliament.” ---
**Author:** ![KneeSid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dec6dc/32.png) [@KneeSid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneeSid)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584/85 "2012-02-06T15:15:52Z")
Any tool you give a prisoner to kill themselves can be used to kill a guard or another prisoner. This thread brings up a good point. Americans don’t want to think about what happens after we lock people up. Sure it’s easy to say, lock them up and throw away the key. But someone is taking care of them after you lock them up. If you were to lock ever person up, even in a single cell with a toilet and just throw food in after them, they’d go crazy fairly quickly. Then you’re going to have, insane locked up people. And that is making a bad situation even worse ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584/86 "2012-02-06T16:14:15Z")
> [@KneeSid](#): > > But someone is taking care of them after you lock them up. Yo. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584/87 "2012-02-06T18:55:14Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > Senator Hang 'em High’s [**an “asshole,”**](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/f-bomb-dropping-mp-defends-his-verbal-attack-on-tory-senator-boisvenu/article2324074/) NDP MP Pat Martin says. Whatever his opinions on this matter it should be noted for the record that the Hon. Pat Martin is, himself, an absolutely monumental asshole. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-let-prisoners-kill-themselves/611584.md?page=4)