NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello all,

I posted this bill to the United Nations, and it received 21 approvals. This is a start, so I wondered if you had any suggestions to get more votes. Here is the bill.

Thank you very much,
Stansfeldland

Prison Reform Bill

ACCEPTS the rights of all nations to hold prisoners in captivity.
ALSO ACCEPTS the rights of all nations to indeed not have a prison system at all.

DEFINES a political prisoner as a person who acts against the governing party in a non-violent manner, and/or a person who is imprisoned to prevent them from voicing views against the governing party.
PROCLAIMS no nation has the right to hold political prisoners.

RECOGNISES the right of any nation to enforce the death penalty as a means of sentence.

REQUESTS that nations to provide prisoners with at least 2 meals a day, a bed and a sanitation facility, including a shower and a toilet.
FURTHER RECOMMENDS that nations respect the beliefs of individuals in prison, giving them the right to worship appropriately.

ENFORCES a law stating that all prisoners must spend at least 25% of their sentence in rehabilitation.
URGES nations to have prisoners in rehabilitation for 50% of their sentence.

INVITES all members of the UN to join a prison reform committee to keep track of the state of UN member prisons.
URGES all nations to set up prison reform committees inside their own nation.

The following are recommendations and are not enforced by the bill:
URGES nations to allow their prisoners outside once a day for 1 hour minimum.
FURTHER REQUESTS that prisoners be able to see their families at least once every three days.
FURTHER URGES the nation has to respect the belief of individual in terms of what they eat i.e. vegetarians and vegans.

I'm fully in favor of having prisoners eat vegetarians and vegans. There are too many of them, and this will help a lot.

Being able to "see their families at least once every three days" is another good idea. Is there any reason they couldn't all use the same telescope, which is pointed at the other prison where their families are?

Observing "the right to worship appropriately" is always good for those prisoners who were incarcerated for following their human sacrifice religion. Keeps prison populations down nicely.

"DEFINES a political prisoner as a person who acts against the governing party in a non-violent manner, and/or a person who is imprisoned to prevent them from voicing views against the governing party."
So if I toss a gum wrapper in the general direction of my congressman, I can be arrested, but if I publish a full page ad threatening death to him and his family I can't?

You don't define "prison reform committees" or "rehabilitation", both of which are fairly important to your proposal. Don't you think there ought to be at least an assumption of what they mean?

Nah. It's both too general and too specific, and probably can't be categorized as a single UN category. Pass.

Hello all,

I posted this bill to the United Nations, and it received 21 approvals. This is a start, so I wondered if you had any suggestions to get more votes. Here is the bill.

Thank you very much,
Stansfeldland

Be prepared for this to not go down nicely. Quite a few of us have various problems with the idea.

Prison Reform Bill

ACCEPTS the rights of all nations to hold prisoners in captivity.
ALSO ACCEPTS the rights of all nations to indeed not have a prison system at all.

Damn. He covered me. So much for that arguement.

DEFINES a political prisoner as a person who acts against the governing party in a non-violent manner, and/or a person who is imprisoned to prevent them from voicing views against the governing party.
PROCLAIMS no nation has the right to hold political prisoners.

Wow. So I can say, as a political view, that the President of the GeminiLand gets his political advice from a group of cocaine-addicted mice and that I would like to rip him to tiny shreds and serve him to his family as a stew under this, and nothing is allowed to happen in reply.

RECOGNISES the right of any nation to enforce the death penalty as a means of sentence.

Which rules out another arguement.

REQUESTS that nations to provide prisoners with at least 2 meals a day, a bed and a sanitation facility, including a shower and a toilet.
FURTHER RECOMMENDS that nations respect the beliefs of individuals in prison, giving them the right to worship appropriately.

Certain death cults are going to have fun with this one...

ENFORCES a law stating that all prisoners must spend at least 25% of their sentence in rehabilitation.
URGES nations to have prisoners in rehabilitation for 50% of their sentence.

I define "rehabilitation" as being beaten unconcious by guards for eight hours a day. If they pass out before the full eight hours of beating it done, that day only counts as half a day. every day spent in the hospital afterwards doesn't count against their sentence.

That's why I use a restitution system.

INVITES all members of the UN to join a prison reform committee to keep track of the state of UN member prisons.
URGES all nations to set up prison reform committees inside their own nation.

Another useless committee.

No prisons, no committiee.

The following are recommendations and are not enforced by the bill:
URGES nations to allow their prisoners outside once a day for 1 hour minimum.
FURTHER REQUESTS that prisoners be able to see their families at least once every three days.
FURTHER URGES the nation has to respect the belief of individual in terms of what they eat i.e. vegetarians and vegans.

Do vegans go well with red or white wine?

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place skewered vegans in oven, covered with aluminum foil. Allow to bake for 45 minutes or until the vegans stop screaming, whichever comes first. Remove vegans from oven. Enjoy your vegan-ka-bobs with a perfect complement of chardonnay!

Overall I'll go for it. It does need some of the afore mentioned details worked out.

I'm fully in favor of having prisoners eat vegetarians and vegans. There are too many of them, and this will help a lot.

Being able to "see their families at least once every three days" is another good idea. Is there any reason they couldn't all use the same telescope, which is pointed at the other prison where their families are?

Observing "the right to worship appropriately" is always good for those prisoners who were incarcerated for following their human sacrifice religion. Keeps prison populations down nicely.

"DEFINES a political prisoner as a person who acts against the governing party in a non-violent manner, and/or a person who is imprisoned to prevent them from voicing views against the governing party."
So if I toss a gum wrapper in the general direction of my congressman, I can be arrested, but if I publish a full page ad threatening death to him and his family I can't?

You don't define "prison reform committees" or "rehabilitation", both of which are fairly important to your proposal. Don't you think there ought to be at least an assumption of what they mean?

Nah. It's both too general and too specific, and probably can't be categorized as a single UN category. Pass.

I'm very happy for you to comment, but if you slag the bill off, could you please come up with some suggestions.

Do vegans go well with red or white wine?

<shaking head> They're VEGANS! White, of course :)

RECOGNISES the right of any nation to enforce the death penalty as a means of sentence.

This would legitimise the death penalty and give UN approval to it by establishing it as a right, making a ban on it dependant on a repeal of this resolution should it, heaven forbid, come to pass. Hence we will not support this and will urge our delegate not to do so either.

This would legitimise the death penalty and give UN approval to it by establishing it as a right, making a ban on it dependant on a repeal of this resolution should it, heaven forbid, come to pass. Hence we will not support this and will urge our delegate not to do so either.

Ooh, good point. I feel dumb now, that didn't even occur to me.

This would legitimise the death penalty and give UN approval to it by establishing it as a right, making a ban on it dependant on a repeal of this resolution should it, heaven forbid, come to pass. Hence we will not support this and will urge our delegate not to do so either.

So basically i should remove that from the bill...

are there any more ideas out there

I'm very happy for you to comment, but if you slag the bill off, could you please come up with some suggestions.
I'm not in favor of improving this proposal. I think it should be scrapped entirely. I don't think that every nation necessarily has the same sort of problems, and any one-size-fits-all proposal for "reforms" will by definition be fatally flawed.

Everything after political prisoners should be discarded in any case. You've already heard the Death Penalty arguments, and the rest of it is just too specific to be meaningful. In some cases, we already do it those ways, in others we want nothing to do with it. Family every three days? Pah! They're being punished, not coddled.


You want a suggestion? Take one part of the proposal and expand it into a general definition. Political prisoners is the obvious choice - good international aspect, appeals to the Human Rights crowd, not defined in any current resolution, potential for some genuine debate.

Also, start with your chosen category and write the proposal to fit, instead of looking afterwards and trying to shoehorn a size-12 proposal into a size-8 category. It doesn't work.

I don't really like this idea, but it does reaffirm the nation's right to use the death penalty, which is a start. I'd just like to see a proposal banning political prisoners. Otherwise, nations should be able to determine punishments for themselves, as long as they are not cruel or unusual. That's all that justice needs to be reformed, in my view.

*must...restrain self from...screaming...that...capital punishment is...cruel and...unusual...*

That's a different proposal though. Banning capital punishment would just add another factor for people to disagree with. Besides, hasn't that been tried already?

Heh. I always find the phrase "cruel and unusual punishment" funny. I understand what the intended meaning of it is, but I think there needs to be a better phrase for it. Following it's litteral interpretation would make most effective punishments illegal.

Without a cruel punishment, all litterbugs shall be given a cookie. Murderers shall recieve a 6-pack of beer. Without unusual punishments, all citizens shall be hit across the back of the with a baseball bat once a week.

Without a cruel punishment, all litterbugs shall be given a cookie. Murderers shall recieve a 6-pack of beer. Without unusual punishments, all citizens shall be hit across the back of the with a baseball bat once a week.

Am I the only one who has no idea what he's talking about?