Punishments do not always fit the crime

The way prisoners were treated in Victorian times was very harsh, even barbaric. The idea of someone in the western world today being executed for vandalism or pickpocketing seems at the very least rather an extreme way of dealing with the problem! On the other hand, these days it's possible for someone to kill another human being and walk out of court with little more than a slap on the wrist which is just as preposterous. If you drink alcohol and then willingly get behind the wheel of a car knowing your actions are dangerous and against the law, and cause an accident resulting in someone's death, how can this possibly be seen as a lesser crime compared to stabbing or shooting someone?

 Common ground must be found for our judicial system to be effective. Bleeding hearts in today's society want the offenders' needs to be considered, but if someone has deliberately murdered,raped or tortured another person, then expecting them to slop out, spend 23 hours a day in confinement and lose their liberty for good, therefore keeping the rest of society forever safe from their influence, is surely a punishment every victim should rightly expect for their offender? 

Execution is something almost everyone has a strong opinion about. Some feel that it makes society as guilty as the criminal, because we are condoning the taking of a life. Others believe an eye for an eye; if you take someone's life then yours should be taken also. There's no denying it costs a small fortune  keeping a prisoner incarcerated for a stretch of time. But do the more hardened criminals and cold blooded murders really need the luxuries our governments insist on supplying them with?  Hard labour, longer sentences and stricter food rations just might prove a deterrent in today's society where comfort means so much to us. Lesser criminals should continue to be educated and rehabilitated back to society. But perhaps it's time we shifted our attentions back to the victims, who are so often forgotten about.