Do you believe certain criminals deserve a second chance?

[Carson]

There are a lot of people in the court system, in prison and so on. It got me thinking recently about second chances. I don't want to see murderers or rapists getting less time. I think they should be locked in a pit, alone with nothing but the small food they get. 

But, do you ever believe someone deserves a second chance? Maybe they caused death due to an accident. idk, but do you believe someone like that is deserving of a second chance? 

What about people who commit manslaughter or smaller crimes under murder and such? 

[James]

Well I think if there is going to be a change it needs to be done with the law changing the penalties for certain behaviors and not politically driven prosecutors just choosing not to enforce a certain law. 

Sure there are some things that a lot of us can agree on as petty crimes such as possession of marijuana which is still a pretty serious offence in some states. 

There are likely some man slaughter convictions out there that were bar fights gone wrong or just unexpected things happening but I do not think we can look at each crime through the individual lens of the crime. We have already defined what the crime is and what the time punishment is. So if people want that to change it should be a change made by the law makers. 

The only thing I know is for this democracy to work over the long run is laws need to be equally enforced on all people in order to keep the system fair. There is way to much corruption out there of people getting special treatment because of "who" they are. 

[Ella]

I have a family friend who lived in Chicago most of his life. He said a lot of first time offenders get in trouble for for things like gun possession very often and this is down to them crossing state boarders to buy them legally and bring them back, which makes it illegal. Most people who do this do it with the intention of protecting their families from criminals yet get marked as criminals and thrown away for 5 or 10 years. It just isn't right. It mostly effects black families as well. There needs to be more focus on stuff like this.

[Damon]

I think it depends on the crime. If someone murdered, raped or intentionally tried to hurt/rape someone, they should be put in prison for life. I am for the death penalty in the case of someone murdering someone on purpose. I think that's fair. 

If you done petty crime, that's one thing, but anything too heinous should be kept behind bars. 

[Sophia]

I always said we should have two different kinds of prisons. One for people who made a mistake or committed a crime without knowing what was going on and then the second one for hardcore criminals. Knowing someone who smoked a little pot can be in a prison cell with someone who murdered someone else is just not right.