What to do with the first criminal?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "victoriatangoman"
wrote:
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Xenophile"
> wrote:
> > Well, since you could think of it, maybe the folks building the
> > habitat can. Thus they can build jails into the design from the
> > beginning. Also, some arrangement can be made with the government
> of
> > the victim. It is, in fact, unlikely that the locals will have
> the
> > authority to hand down a death sentance (or really anything more
> than
> > holding until somebody of higher position/rank/whatever can deal
> with
> > the situation).
> >
> > Xenophile (who has a good alibi)
>
> I'm of the opinion that the design of the Habitat will be one of
> efficiency. Why build buildings that will see so little use?

I say not a jail per se, but a jail adjunct to a courthouse, which
itself may be adjunct to government offices. Inclued should one or two
high sucurity cells, just in case. It the for the safety of settlement
that there be somewhere to put criminals in, even if it temporary,
either of court apperances or transit to high courts somewhere else.

> To make the question more interesting for you, why not assume that
> the Habitat is an independent entity of Earth, and thus can't pass
> the buck.

That will the case only far on in the future, when settlement are
inter-stelar in nature. In the near to indermedate futures, appels to
Earth would quite common, IMHO.

> I'm wondering how a group of 1,000 - 50,000 people (early Habitats)
> incarcerate a few people from their population? To make the
> conundrum more challenging, let's say it's for a crime that usually
> doesn't involve the death penalty, so we can dispense with the
> pushing them out of the airlock for a barfight, property crime,
> domestic disputes, etc.

Well, I think that some of what you discribe would fall into civil
law, which I think (correct me if I'm wrong) does not give jail time.
On option is that a cluster of settlement create a common justice
system, with a common set of laws, courts of appels, and penal
infrastucture, etc. The cluster could create it own specialized penal
settlement, just for prisoners.

> What do you do with the first criminal in your group? Who looks
> after him? Do you just deport him back to Earth, unpunished, and
> claim the deportation is the de facto punishment?

It depends on the offender, the offence, and the laws of the
settlement and/or the "mother country," if any, of the settlement.