Study the list of penitentiary institutions in Great Britain. Do you know the difference between them? Find the Russian equivalents for them. Are there the same penitentiary institutions in Russia?

a)Women’s prisons b)Juvenile correctional institutions c) Reformatory d) Community school e) Training school f) Borstal g) Prisons for male offenders h) Minimum/low security prison i) Medium security prison j) Maximum/high security prison k) Open prison l) Closed prison m) Local prisons n) Broadmoor

 

                                T ext 2 Capital Punishment

Below you will find an essay written by a US University student, Gabriel Coleman. Do you agree with his ideas? Discuss the problem of Capital Punishment in your class.

      The idea of capital punishment has divided people into three sorts of categories: those for it, those against it, and those who say it depends on the case and how heinous the crime is. I would say that I am against it. There are a couple problems that arise with the decision of which side to take: the crime and the mental stability of a person.

    Between the two I am probably more against the death penalty. I think that almost maybe regardless of the crime. The eye for an eye philosophy just is not practical. First it doesn't bring back the victims - it supposedly makes the victims families “feel” better. I think what it does is only bring out more pain. This idea was depicted in the movie, Dead Man Walking by Susan Sarandon. It shows the side of convicted felon who awaits his death by lethal injection and how his family suffers and what he goes through. As a parallel they show what he was convicted of - a rape and a double murder. With these two images throughout the picture, for some, it was hard to think of what they thought of the death penalty. For me, it made me think about it a bit and helped me solidify my convictions. 

    It is hard to say what I would think if something horrible happened to my family. It is always easier to discuss with no emotions attached. For someone who commits an absolute massacre, obviously that person's frame of mind is not what you would exactly call stable. I am not a psychologist and I cannot really determine whether someone is insane or not. I am not sure I am convinced that people can really tell whether someone is insane or not. What really needs to be determined is whether the felon who committed the crime knew what he/she was doing. Does he/she know the difference between right and wrong? This is the only factor that I would say: if they knew that what they were doing was wrong and committed the crime anyway - they should deserve the same punishment - ideally. But I am against it, remember.

    However, I think that the ultimate punishment for a person is not death - that would be too easy. Locking up a person for life, taking away their freedom, taking away choices, isolating them from society, this is punishment. I do not know what the standards of prison are today but I have heard from adamant fans of the death penalty that prisons are not what they are supposed to be. Some are like mini hotels - they get food three times a day, they have a place to work out, and they can watch television or read, some can even get degrees while they are in prison. From what I have heard they have all the advantages if not more than some people who live in the free world. In my eyes, when someone gets sentenced for life that means taking away everything that would make them human - I guess that would be a form of torture if anything. The same food everyday, no sky, no choices, no idea what is happening in the world. Basically just give them what they need to survive - food, water, and shelter as much as a dog needs. Take for example Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - it is a pyramid where at the base it has the basics the food, water, etc. and then as the pyramid grows, the step above it has security then self-esteem and friends and family and relations. The top of the pyramid is what is defined as self-actualization and this is what people should be striving for, to become a complete, well-balanced individual.

    Essentially, what needs to be done is to remove criminals from society, lock them up forever (none of this parole business) and let them live like pigs in a pen fed from a trough. Of course, they would have to be absolutely, positively guilty without any doubt. That in itself is another story.

                                                  

                                               Exercises

 

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