Firing Line Friday: Do We Need Prisons at All?

     In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.

     When it comes to crime and punishment, we seem to go through cycles where high crime lead inevitably to tough on crime measures which lower crime… which results in the softening of anti-crie legislation, until the cycle repeats again. California, via initiative went from tough anti-crime “3 Strikes” laws to practically legalizing theft, and has now returned to more tough on crime policies. Let us look back thirty years ago when some went so far in opposing tough on crime legislation that they questioned if we needed prisons at all, with John C. Goodman, Jean Harris, Stephen B. Bright, Charles W. Colson, Pierre S. Du Pont and William F. Buckley, Jr.

     Until next Friday.

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