If the judge sentenced you to life in prison (no parole ever) or to be executed, the death sentence. Which would you choose?

what’s with all the prison questions?

Two words: Andy Dufresne.

Chee——my 2 were based on a thing I heard on NPR today….I have no assoication w/ this one….
:)

As to my answer to this Q….it would depend. What is the facility situation like? Do I get to see my family? Etc.

life. There’s a lot I could still do in prison.

@poofandmook: I don’t know what that means. Can you fill in some of new folk?

I would have to agree with snoopy oj that one. If the prison gave you terrible food, no family visitation, and just treated you like you were trash then I would rather be executed.

Death by Cannabis!

cheebdragon asked: what’s with all the prison questions?

I don’t know what’s with all the prison questions….this is the first prison question, I have asked…because it was asked to me today, by a coworker. Thought I would share it with Fluther users!

@Poof, isn’t Andy Dufresne a reference to The Shawshank Redemption? Personally, I vote neither.

Give me life. It gives me time to plot my escape.

Andy Dufresne was the character in Shawshank to escape.

Life in prison. I’d rather read for sixty years than be electrocuted/gassed/shot/injected.

death. I’m the type of person that would spend every day of the rest of my (prison) life reliving the moment I made the dreadful mistake that got me there, and perpetually pondering all the productive things I could be doing, amazing things I could be seeing, and fantastic experiences I could be having but will never ever be able to. That is no type of life.

I’m with Sloane on this one.

i would not want to live in a box with out freedom so i would say death

@poofandmook and @SuperMouse: I didn’t know his last name was spelled like that, so seeing it didn’t click with me. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

i always thought that you may as well be dead than living life in a prison, with lousy CO’s, having to join a gang, lousy food that you don’t know what the other prisoners who cooked it put in it, but since i’m a woman, i think women’s prisons are a little different. here in westchester county, we have bedford women’s correctional facility, where a lot of famous (infamous) women criminals go, like jean harris, who shot the diet doctor in the 70’s. i think what some of those women do is they try to do charitable work, or teach other prisoners (at least, that’s what jean harris did). but if i had to live in a men’s prison, like you see in the documentaries on MSNBC, i’d rather be dead, i think. deep question. i guess you really couldn’t answer it for sure unless you were in the situation.

i would choose life in prison and try to study and learn new stuff as much as i can. to be fair though, i would probably ask if i could “test it out” for a week or two, and then if i decide it’s not going to give me the resources to study etc, i would choose the death.

I’d go to prison if I could get access to books. Malcolm X learned everything he needed in prison. For example.

@susan yes….but Malcom X eventually got out of prison….wasn’t in for life

True. Good point.
I’d go to prison (if I had books) anyway, because I could figure out how to get out.
Other people have.
Easier for me to say I’d go to prison than it would be if I were a small fragile man.
Then I might not.

i think if i escaped from prison i wouldn’t enjoy my life because i’d be constantly paranoid that i’d be caught any minute.

I’d choose death. Being kept in one place for the rest of my life isn’t living. Learning and reading about other places would only make it worse. I’d constantly be thinking about the rest of the world and I’d probably eventually become depressed from being trapped for so long.

Given the nature of the crimes that would leave one in that predicament (rape, murder, child molestation, or any combination of the three), I’d certainly choose death. My conscience would not be able to handle the years of forced contemplation of my actions. If the crime is completely taken out of the equation, then prison it would be. It may not be the best of times, but there is value in the relationships formed while in the system. Happiness may be hard to find, and in smaller doses than on the outside, but we as a species have a gift to be able to find it virtually anywhere, under any circumstances. Life in a box does not mean that life is over.