It has been revealed today that Josef Fritzl will serve his sentence in what amounts to a five star hotel. He was jailed for 'life' last week for murder, rape, enslavement, coercion and incest after locking his daughter in his cellar for 24 years, and fathering seven children by her, six of whom survived. Fritzl now gets to choose from three prisons under Austrian law.
His lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, says he will choose Garsten which is a former Benedictine convent converted into a prison. The facility has a gym equipped to the standard of any commercial venue, a choir. and one of the the largest prison libraries in the country. His hobby is reading.
The facility is set in woodland at the foot of the Alps and gives him the opposite of what he gave his daughter and her offspring, fresh air and light.
Although sentenced to 'Life', he will be eligible for parole after only fifteen years, living in conditions that many old age pensioners would give five years of their lives for. Whilst 'inside' he will be given the opportunity to follow many hobbies including tennis, art classes and darts. In fact, he will be living in conditions far superior than those of most working-class families today.
The one overbearing question that comes to mind is: Why? Whatever happened to Justice and the rule of punishment for a crime committed. In the last thirty years, Justice has become so soft that some criminals deliberately commit another crime just to get back 'inside'.
I remember well in the 1960's when Wakefield Prison in England was first opened. After seeing it on the TV News I and my collegues were disgusted, because the prisoners were housed in better conditions than we were in the RAF. In the Forces we were still living twelve to a room with a personal space the size of the bed plus a bit. These prisoners even had curtains on the windows so they would not feel bad if they saw the bars.
Now, in most 'civilised' countries, prisons are more like a five star hotel with everything provided for free, well except to the tax payer of course. Gone for good are the days when a criminal was punished for his crime, now many live in better conditions than they ever did 'outside'.
The 'Do-Goody Brigade' was of the opinion that prisoners should be treated as poor misguided people that need comfort and reassurance with large dollops of luxury to get them back 'on the right track'. Cobblers!!!!
More than half of criminals released early from jail for 'good behavior' go on to re- offend within weeks if not days.
In my opinion, it is time to bring back the 'Cat' for minor offenders, especially those under legal age, and for the rest, the good old chain-gang. There is so much good work these people can be doing for the country instead of working out in the gym, playing pool, reading books and generally lounging about at tax payers expense.
Should the Justice System ever get back to reality and make prison a place to be feared, I am sure people who have been 'inside' will not want to return. Once we resume making the punishment fit the crime the sooner we see a drop in murder, violence, robbery and crime in general.
For someone as heinous as Fritzl to be given such a punishment for his terrible crimes is downright immoral. It is disgusting and depraved. It is doubtful that his daughter, who is now 42, and her six children will ever be able to live a normal life, considering the horrible mental scars they must carry with them.
Referring to my previous Post dated March 15, It would appear that if you defend yourself or your property, or are maimed mentally and/or physically, you get a harsher sentence than the criminal who perpetrated the crime in the first place. Madness!
May your days be untroubled, and your nights serene.
Roy.
Hi Roy,
ReplyDeleteYou would enjoy this email I got today from a friend.
Shotgun preteen vs. illegal alien Home Invaders:
Butte, Montana - November 5, 2008
Two illegal aliens, Ralphel Resindez, 23, and Enrico Garza, 26, probably believed they would easily overpower home-alone 11 year old Patricia Harrington after her father had left their two-story home.
It seems the two crooks never learned two things: they were in Montana and Patricia had been a clay shooting champion since she was nine.
Patricia was in her upstairs room when the two men broke through the front door of the house. She quickly ran to her father's room and grabbed his 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun. Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor only to be the first to catch a near point blank blast of buckshot from the 11-year-old's knee crouch aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals..
When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and staggered out into the street where he bled to death before medical help could arrive.
It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen 45 caliber handgun he took from another home invasion robbery. That victim, 50-year-old David Burien, was not so lucky. He died from stab wounds to the chest.
Ever wonder why good stuff never makes NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, or ABC news ... an 11 year old girl, properly trained, defended her home, and herself ... against two A-hole, illegal immigrants ... and she wins, she is still alive.
Now that's Gun Control!