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This thread brought to you by the current woes of the California Penal System. I do not advocate that this experiment be tried in real life, so don't bother telling me how shockingly inhumane it is. With that said:
Suppose prisons as we know them were abolished, and all people who would go into prison, for any offense, are instead chucked into a sealed "pit." This pit is several thousand feet deep, sheltered, lighted and secured. This facility is absolutely escape-proof: all passages leading out, except for the extremely sturdy series of armored doors through which new prisoners are admitted, are less than half a foot wide. More than sufficient supplies of food and water are pumped in, and waste is pumped out, but otherwise the people in the pit have no contact with the outside world. Nobody gets out, and the people within the pit are free to do absolutely anything they please.
What do you think would happen inside the pit? Would something resembling a civilization emerge, to protect the relatively decent prisoners from the utter sociopaths and rapists? Or would the sickest and meanest convicts take over and run the place as tyrants? Would they quickly solidify into gangs, which killed each other off at lightning speed? Or, with nothing to be gained by fighting, would they just take their food and water and live out their lives in complete peace? Or would most everyone commit suicide?
What if there were something to be gained by fighting, e.g. if there were a limited supply of better-tasting food along with an infinite supply of "prisoner chow"? Or if the food supply were limited, or variable? What if, on the other hand, there were an incentive to be civilized--the population is monitored, and inmates who display humane behavior are offered the chance to leave? What if prisoners were sorted into different pits by sex, or by types of crime (murderers and child molesters here, thieves and frauds there, repeat drug offenders in a third pile)?
Feel free to suggest your own variants if you think it'd make things more interesting. Hopefully this will be a thought-provoking discussion. Time for me to go to work, be back later.
Suppose prisons as we know them were abolished, and all people who would go into prison, for any offense, are instead chucked into a sealed "pit." This pit is several thousand feet deep, sheltered, lighted and secured. This facility is absolutely escape-proof: all passages leading out, except for the extremely sturdy series of armored doors through which new prisoners are admitted, are less than half a foot wide. More than sufficient supplies of food and water are pumped in, and waste is pumped out, but otherwise the people in the pit have no contact with the outside world. Nobody gets out, and the people within the pit are free to do absolutely anything they please.
What do you think would happen inside the pit? Would something resembling a civilization emerge, to protect the relatively decent prisoners from the utter sociopaths and rapists? Or would the sickest and meanest convicts take over and run the place as tyrants? Would they quickly solidify into gangs, which killed each other off at lightning speed? Or, with nothing to be gained by fighting, would they just take their food and water and live out their lives in complete peace? Or would most everyone commit suicide?
What if there were something to be gained by fighting, e.g. if there were a limited supply of better-tasting food along with an infinite supply of "prisoner chow"? Or if the food supply were limited, or variable? What if, on the other hand, there were an incentive to be civilized--the population is monitored, and inmates who display humane behavior are offered the chance to leave? What if prisoners were sorted into different pits by sex, or by types of crime (murderers and child molesters here, thieves and frauds there, repeat drug offenders in a third pile)?
Feel free to suggest your own variants if you think it'd make things more interesting. Hopefully this will be a thought-provoking discussion. Time for me to go to work, be back later.
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