Extra judicial killings vs Prison Industries

Awhile back we had the menacing Mugiki sect which according to one Mr. Kibichu has reemerged and is back to extorting protection fees from business in the former central province. I hear that they tried to infiltrate Meru and were met with the devil may fear but not me attitude most Merus have. Anyhow, Michuki the late, handled them by mercilessly slaughtering them, just as was the case when KDF was called in, for the Sabaot Land Defense who had terrorised some communities in Mount Elgin to eject them from the land.

I follow local and international crime closely.I am a crime buff. I follow Hessy, Black Widow, Saigon Punisher among other state sanctioned extra judicial executioners in Kenya. I hate to admit the fact that I at times find these killings justified because some of these gangsters kill, maim and gang rape mercilessly. I am a pacifist and I believe that life is sacrosanct, all life, even the life of the vilest criminal. I am against the death penalty as this nation being a Christian country has commuted death sentence to life sentence. The last execution was of one Ochuka and accomplices probably in the 80s after the coup. So you see, even I am conflicted. I don’t want some crazy nut job out on the streets where they can harm innocent hard-working civilians but is killing criminals, be it through mob justice or state sanctioned extra judicial execution the only way to deal with this menace?

America has mastered a way to put the huge manpower available via deviants to use in prison industries. The government is in Private Public Partnerships with various conglomerates who build prisons then get near free labor. Killing a human being is a waste of resources, forget the morality of it. If you look at the amount of resources put into a human being from birth is too much is too much to just go to waste. Furthermore I believe that most criminals can be rehabilitated at least within a prison set up to at the very least be productive in prison industries. We can have a semblance of the three strikes rule where repeat offenders automatically get life terms. Since majority of criminals are youths below the age of 35, these men can provide a good 30 plus years of near free labor to industries.

I don’t know why this is not an option especially in 3rd world countries where there’s need for cheap labor. Prison industries are a gold mine that should be tapped into. I understand that China uses prisoners to do their infrastructure projects both at home and abroad especially in the 3rd world countries which ensures their labor costs are minimal. In every problem there’s an opportunity. Let’s not just look at criminals as a problem but as an opportunity to be exploited.

As an ardent follower of crime and its statistics, I can say without fear of contradiction that as many as 100 youths are gunned down in Nairobi quarterly. Can you imagine the kind of manpower these numbers can provide, if harnessed? This are healthy young men who can work for 30 plus years for the government, for private industry. The model adopted by the US as much as its equivalent of slavery, still makes more sense than just killing these delinquents.

I have been researching the efficacy of death sentence or capital punishment as a deterrent particularly in countries where narcotic offences automatically translate to capital punishment. The reality is that rather than act as a deterrent, number of drug traffickers in these countries is going up. The justification behind capital punishment is retribution but mostly its to act as a deterrent. It does not work as a deterrent and most people who have lost loved ones through crime do not experience much relief in spite of the retribution of executing the killers of their loved ones. So capital punishment or extra judicial killings in of itself do not fulfill the two major purposes used to justify their necessity.

I believe that criminals can be useful in the right environment. I believe all life is sacrosanct. The only legitimate life giver and taker is God. That’s why I am also against abortion because much as it’s taunted as a right for women by some factions of feminism, it’s a violation of the right to live of the unborn child whose life begins at conception. As we evolve as a society there’s need for us to move away from archaic methodologies of law enforcement and move into win win ways of managing crime and criminals. I wish I had a degree in criminalogy but even if I don’t, the little research I have done for my own knowledge and understanding since I have great interest in matters crime, tells me that killing criminals has never been a sufficient deterrent. So it’s redundant and as society we need to find and implement better methods in law enforcement and the penal code. I believe it can be done and that it will benefit society more than these wanton killings in the name of enforcement.

Again my heart goes out to all families who have lost their loved ones to extra judicial killings especially that of the latest victim the late Mr. George Floyd may the good Lord have mercy on his soul and comfort those he has left behind. I hope his death can be a turning point for law enforcement across America. I hope the rage expressed by the destruction in Minnesota will make the concerned authorities sit up and listen that in 2020 a nation of the caliber of America can not be practicing lawlessness and extrajudicial killing under the guise of enforcing the law.

Hi Truwoman,
The prison industries idea is good, criminals can do some useful work. In Africa they can be greatly utilized to put together our messy roads and build dams and dykes to fix flooding. I have said before that petty criminals can be useful. Even as we speak prisoners are making excellent and durable furniture, as you can attest if if have visited a Kenya prisons showroom. But there is a conflict about this too form of rehabilitation–how to rehabilitate really dangerous people like murderous and rapists? I don’t want to sound callous, but I think there is a place in human justice for a death sentence. Some crimes–think of DRC–should not be punished by keeping some human beasts in prison to feed them forever off the sweat of their victims. Prisons are run on taxes, why should you keep toiling to keep murderers alive? If you murder or rape a person you deserve to be executed. It acts to deter the inclination. Killing someone accidentally is different though. I don’t think you need a degree in criminology to give useful insights on dealing with some social ills. You can write articles, give talks, or even serve on some community development boards if you have the opportunity. I think the greatest drawback is the kind of national values we prioritize. Dealing with crime is quite a weight on the soul though, you are forced to be cruel to be kind, if you know what I mean.

I hope you know the more people in prisons, the more free labor.
that’s very dangerous since you might be jailed for minor offenses and also while in prison they will do everything to ensure you don’t leave even when you’ve served your sentence.

the only solution is to accept and support genetics where we are able to remove some/most of the anomalies people are born with that make them evil.
remebmer, only rules seperate Humans from animals. (we are all bad/evil)

Cultural values have vanished. Culture is what makes people different from animals, keeping people out of trouble. But people think culture is for the birds, thus filling prisons with petty offenders who could have been straightened out at the family or community level. Life is so commercialized today so much that people have become slaves of the legal system, making prisons necessary. People call the police over family disputes that have been escalated by a simple lack of courtesy. Some cases that go to court used to be easily dealt with by chiefs, when they were powerful. It was not an ideal system I know, but it kept youth away from shopping centres wasting time, drinking or taking bhang. By the way drugs contribute hugely to the escalation of crime rates.

On the cost implications, it’s actually cheaper to build and maintain prisons for labor than to operate industry in the free market. That’s why it’s such a hit for American conglomerates their cost of production is greatly minimized by these prison industries. In jail we employ economies of scale. The cost of running a jail is nothing compared to that of running a factory