[matthew fuller]

" If their debt to society has been repaid in full"

Just exactly how can these crimes be "repaid" to society? How is a person unkilled, or unraped? Punishing a violent felon by incarceration further burdens society. Nowhere is anything "repaid". Except maybe the lawyers.

[hinckley buzzard]

Indeed. Where did all this claptrap about "repaying debt to society" come from anyway? That isn't why we punish felons. Some psychopath serving time does me no good at all except make my community marginally safer while he is in the cooler.

And if his judgment is bad enough to get himself thrown in prison why do we want him making civil decisions at the ballot box or anywhere else. The Founding Fathers understood, and said, that democratic self-rule requires a moral and educated electorate. If we can restrict bright decent seventeen year-olds from voting, why not malefactors who take delight in messing up society at large?

[plainshame]

In some states 26 miles over the speed limit is a felony so I think the bar is a bit lower than Rape and murder.GEEZ!