{"id":12311,"date":"2025-03-12T17:35:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/?p=12311"},"modified":"2025-03-12T17:35:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T17:35:25","slug":"prisoners-donating-organs-for-sentence-reduction-should-the-punishment-fit-the-crime-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/2025\/03\/12\/prisoners-donating-organs-for-sentence-reduction-should-the-punishment-fit-the-crime-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Prisoners \u2018Donating\u2019 Organs For Sentence Reduction: Should The Punishment Fit The Crime?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In January 2023 two Democratic representatives, Judith Garcia and Carlos<br>Gonzalez, proposed a bill that would offer prisoners in Massachusetts a new way<br>to win not less than 60 and not more than 365-day reduction in their sentences by donating their bone marrow or vital organs. The legislators claimed that their proposal would respect the bodily autonomy of prisoners and would address racial disparities by helping to expand the pool of donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Massachusetts bill would allow prisoners to donate organs, bone marrow for reduced sentence\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QYwnOX9XQdc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I must refute this claim. How is this a bill that was passed in TWENTY TWENTY-THREE &#8211; a mere two years ago? You\u2019d think politicians would\u2019ve learned by now. Consider the situation in which a prisoner was wrongfully committed and jailed. It is actually estimated that 1 percent of the US prison population, approximately&nbsp;20,000 people, are falsely convicted.&nbsp;In this case, the punishment does not fit the crime because the crime was never even committed in the first place, and while this is true the bill should have never been passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the instance the crime was committed, it simply doesn\u2019t make sense that the sentence can be modified in anyway. Altering the sentence undermines the idea that it was appropriately determined in the first place which sets a dangerous precedent, suggesting that sentences are flexible rather than fitting the severity of the crime. It also opens the way for future modifications undermining the integrity of the legal system and its ability to deliver justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BUT this isn\u2019t even the real problem here. Fundamentally, it does not matter what these prisoners have done \u2013 they are<em> <strong>still<\/strong><\/em><strong> <em>people. Human beings.<\/em><\/strong> There will never be real autonomy or true consent in this situation to ask them to give their bodies in exchange for freedom. It\u2019s not a fair trade; it\u2019s a blatant violation of human rights. It\u2019s preying on vulnerable people who have little choice because the alternative \u2013 staying locked up for longer \u2013 is not really a choice, only the illusion of one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This punishment will never fit the crime. Furthermore, Garcia and Gonzalez have walked back their proposal and are planning to introduce a version without the promise of a sentence reduction. This bill should never have been passed to allow this change in the first place. Bills passed in future need to focus on real reform\u2014improving rehabilitation, ensuring fair sentencing, and expanding ethical organ donation programs by increasing public awareness and expanding donor registration programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In January 2023 two Democratic representatives, Judith Garcia and CarlosGonzalez, proposed a bill that would offer prisoners in Massachusetts a new wayto win not less than 60 and not more than 365-day reduction in their sentences by donating their bone marrow or vital organs. The legislators claimed that their proposal would respect the bodily autonomy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6823,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6823"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12337,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12311\/revisions\/12337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/uosm2031-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}