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Bernie Madoff sentenced to 150 years in prison
- Thread starter Syberia
- Start date
As much of a bastard as this guy is, it's pretty hard to believe that stealing money is worthy of a sentence of 150 years, in addition to being stripped of all of his personal property. That's a lifetime and a half, and the life he already lived..for stealing. What an asinine, draconian sentencing.
How does putting a 70 year old in jail for 150 years solve the greater problem of fraud in the economy? This is another classic instance of short-sighted mob rage distracting people from the real problems that allowed this crime to happen in the first place. Whatever happened to the phrase "the punishment should fit the crime"? I am just as outraged at what this man did as the next guy who will never see this much money in their lifetime, but seriously, all the money in the world isn't worth 150 years.
If anything, Madoff should be given a job with the government, teaching them how to detect fraud in a similar fashion to how companies hire hackers to tweak computer security. That will actually put him to good use, and it will help people in the long run as well as pointing out some of the flaws that need to be fixed in our system.
How does putting a 70 year old in jail for 150 years solve the greater problem of fraud in the economy? This is another classic instance of short-sighted mob rage distracting people from the real problems that allowed this crime to happen in the first place. Whatever happened to the phrase "the punishment should fit the crime"? I am just as outraged at what this man did as the next guy who will never see this much money in their lifetime, but seriously, all the money in the world isn't worth 150 years.
If anything, Madoff should be given a job with the government, teaching them how to detect fraud in a similar fashion to how companies hire hackers to tweak computer security. That will actually put him to good use, and it will help people in the long run as well as pointing out some of the flaws that need to be fixed in our system.
What I love is that stealing money is worth 150 years, but DUI manslaughter is only worth 30 days if you are famous. (Donte' Stallworth)
He was running his scam since the '60s, and ruined the lives of several people. He's 71, anything longer than 10 or 15 years amounts to a life sentence for him anyways. What's more, there were absolutely no mitigating factors - he had no remorse at all for what he did, and he knew full well what he was doing the whole time.
What caused this to happen, same as Enron, is the fact that the people doing this type of thing think they're invincible because they have money. The more of them that get thrown in jail, the more of them who will think twice.
Yes, because allowing him to profit from his crime is clearly the solution. That breeds the mentality that you can go ahead and break the law, as long as you're developing useful skills you can use to weasel your way out of real punishment after you're caught. Madoff isn't some common street thug from a bad background who might have fucked up once or twice doing what he needed to do to survive; he was someone who would have had enough money anyways without scamming people, and who was cold, calculating, and in control of his actions the whole time.
I highly doubt that, considering that you have to be pretty much convinced that you will never be caught before you commit such a huge theft. These things don't just happen overnight, countless amounts of planning went into it.
Why would someone who doesn't think they'll be caught care about jail time?
Is your sarcasm detector broken?
Then why don't we just let him go without any punishment at all? Clearly that is the answer, if "nothing works."
How much time in prison should someone go to jail for breaking into your house and stealing all of your money?
Multiple that by the number of victims, I bet you get more than 150 years out of it.
This isn't stealing from one or two people, this is stealing from thousands. If he was charged with theft for every victim, he'd be in prison even longer (well, sentenced lol).
Obviously some crimes deserve greater punishment, but I don't see how that's relevant to what he deserved.
Multiple that by the number of victims, I bet you get more than 150 years out of it.
This isn't stealing from one or two people, this is stealing from thousands. If he was charged with theft for every victim, he'd be in prison even longer (well, sentenced lol).
Obviously some crimes deserve greater punishment, but I don't see how that's relevant to what he deserved.
And considering that numerous people actually lost their life savings...
Cathy
Banned deucer.
I don't support prison time for financial crimes. These criminals should just be given permanent limitations on what they can do (not able to start businesses etc.) and all of their assets can be seized.
Prison has two functions: to deter crime and to prevent criminals from committing more crimes (since they can't leave the prison). Considering that Madoff was only caught because he admitted to this crime, clearly he rightly didn't need to worry about being caught. Future criminals will look at this as evidence that these type of crimes are easy to get away with unless you confess, not as a reason not to commit them.
As for the second function of prison, criminals cannot be allowed to carry out more illegal actions--for violent crimes, often the only way to prevent it is to physically limit them to a place where they can't hurt civilians (i.e. a prison). For financial crimes this can be accomplished by seizing assets and placing limitations on the criminals (e.g. that they can't accept investments). Prison serves no function here for financial crimes because physically limiting the people to one place is not required to prevent them from committing the crime again.
So, I don't support any prison time for Madoff. It's purely vindictive.
Prison has two functions: to deter crime and to prevent criminals from committing more crimes (since they can't leave the prison). Considering that Madoff was only caught because he admitted to this crime, clearly he rightly didn't need to worry about being caught. Future criminals will look at this as evidence that these type of crimes are easy to get away with unless you confess, not as a reason not to commit them.
As for the second function of prison, criminals cannot be allowed to carry out more illegal actions--for violent crimes, often the only way to prevent it is to physically limit them to a place where they can't hurt civilians (i.e. a prison). For financial crimes this can be accomplished by seizing assets and placing limitations on the criminals (e.g. that they can't accept investments). Prison serves no function here for financial crimes because physically limiting the people to one place is not required to prevent them from committing the crime again.
So, I don't support any prison time for Madoff. It's purely vindictive.
So maybe they need to get better at catching these people. When they do, it's still not going to deter anyone if you're not punished when you're caught.
Bernie Madoff pretty much gave a huge "fuck you" to the rules of organized society. I don't think it's too far off base to give him a huge "fuck you" right back. This isn't something petty like drug use (which shouldn't even be a crime) or purse-snatching, this is a cold, calculated effort to destroy the lives of numerous individuals over the span of decades.
Cathy
Banned deucer.
I'm advocating a very harsh punishment: loss of your assets and restrictions on what financial activities you can carry out. That's good enough. There's no reason to lock people up when it doesn't accomplish anything. In fact you could presumably run an illegal financial scam from within prison if you still have assets. We're supposed to be above exacting revenge on criminals.
You're right, but tell that to the people he bankrupted whose lives he completely ruined. Also, as a future law student with a degree in criminal justice: I don't buy the "prison as a deterrent" argument for one second, never have. It's a punishment, and everyone knows it. (And a shitty one, at that.)
Frankly, I do not think that prison in and of itself is that horrible of a punishment. What could be worse than getting three meals a day, full insurance, free time, and a roof over your head that you don't have to pay for?
I'm not a supporter of the cruel and unusual, but I am a fan of strong punishment. Kids learn rules through being beat (for lack of a better word), not through sitting in time-out. The same applies to criminals imho.
I'm not a supporter of the cruel and unusual, but I am a fan of strong punishment. Kids learn rules through being beat (for lack of a better word), not through sitting in time-out. The same applies to criminals imho.
Except for the part where the ex referee of the NBA is serving a sentence for betting on games, and now he has to go through surgery on his knee, because of some gang member, and he's been threatened many times to "get his head shot off". I don't know, jail is such a fun place and an easy punishment! Not to mention the number of women raped in this prison during a prison riot. Even more fun!
That's sarcasm by the way. If you still don't get the message, I'm telling you to shut your mouth and stop assuming that prison is a place with rainbows and skittles raining down, with pink ponies everywhere and everyone is happy. Prison sucks. Huge cock.
I was simply slanting the discussion to show the benifits of being in prison.
And as a matter of fact, I have an uncle who committed a crime just to get back into prison, just because he thought he ahd a better chance of being alive in there than out in the free world.
And we donh't even have skittle rainbows out here, so I'm assuming they're not in prison, either. My part of this aside is over.
And as a matter of fact, I have an uncle who committed a crime just to get back into prison, just because he thought he ahd a better chance of being alive in there than out in the free world.
And we donh't even have skittle rainbows out here, so I'm assuming they're not in prison, either. My part of this aside is over.
Execution would probably only be warranted if you could prove the financial loss inflicted by Bernie Madoff was a direct cause of murders and suicides ensuing.
Otherwise the life sentence is the harshest thing available.
At least Marc Rich got screwed. Not much of a silver lining though.
Otherwise the life sentence is the harshest thing available.
At least Marc Rich got screwed. Not much of a silver lining though.
Except the majority of people in prison don't have to deal with that shit.
Yes, jail is tough for some people, but it is pretty much an adult time-out for the majority of prisoners.
