I have mixed feelings on this one too, one part of me is all for it, especially if they are proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, an eye for an eye is what I believe in, but then no system is perfect and innocent people have been sentenced to death before, so that is not going to change in a hurry.

NZ has no captial punishment at all, I have a problem when jailed for LIFE does not really mean life, they are out on parole in ten years, that sucks bigtime IMO., life should be exactly that, if you are not going to use captial punishment, then make LIFE mean LIFE.

Yes criminals have familys, and obviously it affects them, and I do have compassion for them, but more so for the victims families, they have top priority as far as I am concerned, you can't be thinking about the criminals familys feelings as well.

Prison life is far too good in this country, especially low security prisons, that is why criminals re-offend, they don't mind a spell in a low security prison, they don't have to worry about supporting themselves, putting food in their bellies, or a roof over their head, some re-offend just to get in there.

My american friend is going to be training to become a prison officer in Jan , so I will be really interested to get an insight into our prison services.

Now go and look at the prisons in some asian countries, now thats a tough life, getting caned, living in squallor, I am not sure I advocate that for our prison, but it might be a slight deterent to choose a different lifestyle than prison.