Gemetria's penal services companies just won a landmark legal decision in Gemetria's Supreme Court today. Inmates may now be hired to third party companies to work off their debt, rather than work directly for the penal company. Penal companies say that this will help their bottom line, but Gemetria's oft-maligned human rights activists claim that this will effectively establish an unregulated slavery system in Gemetria for prisoners. This news comes just on the wake of a series of hard won concessions by Gemetrian government to grant limited democratic rights to the helots.

Even more disturbing is that the Gemetrian State Military, and several private armies, have just inked deals with a penal corporation for the sale of death row inmates for "hot target" training and for weapons development. The Hiroki Pharmaceutical Concern is also in final negotiations for the sale of inmates for medical testing. A Hiroki Concern spokesperson says that this deal is unrelated to a massive donation to the Dis, Gonius, Corpicium, and Novo Laconia City Police forces, and assure the people of Gemetria that these experiments will be done in an ethical and transparent manner.

OOC - this seems to be a human rights violation, is there a court or a means that we can employ to end this? I assume this is what Gemetria wants us to try and do.

I will be the one to challenge these laws and procedures if no one else wants to...
C-Ton

MrPopo already has economic sanctions against Gemetria. We can do nothing further except deny our citizens direct transport to Gemetria for safety concerns. All Popoans wishing to travel to Gemetria will now have to do so by travelling through another country first. And MrPopo would like to publicly denounce the nation of Gemetria for all its past and present policies.

OCC:
C-Ton: Gemetria has never submitted to international courts

The Kether system delievers an offical communique from Gemetria to world media outlets:

"Gemetria finds it rich that some nations find it their business to comment on policies of Gemetria, sitting on their own distant pedestal of smug alien morality. We assure visitors that auslanders are never sentenced to death, and those would never be subject to our subtle legal change.

"Do not be too quick to judge this policy prima facia. Gemetrians never see themselves in isolation, but always in context with their State and government. The people that will be effected by the new law have strayed off of this path, and are being returned to the loving heart of the State. This is a new convenant that the State graciously offers to the ranks of the Fallen.

"Our culture is prehaps difficult to understand for auslanders. Never-the-less, we expect that our policies be respected in the same way that Gemetria respects the sovereignty and lifestyles of other nations."

Durass notes that its prison policy is similar though, perhaps not as harsh. Prisoners are given the option of working off their sentences in various ways rather than simple cell time. In fact, part of every sentance includes repayment of state incarceration and victims remuneration expenses.

We find your alternative for death sentance intriguing and would like more details. While on the surface, it appears to be a rather cruel and repulsive system, we think the underlying idea may have some merit.


Commander Drake
Durass Justice Department

This is an excerpt from the widely distributed summary of the Corpus Juris Gemetria, from the essay “On Gemetria Society” by the auslander Johnat Benson (note: this is from before the new law that was passed. Dr. Benson intends to have this document updated for the next issue of The 67th Proceedings of the Taurian Sociological and Anthological Society Conference):

“… Legal concerns in Gemetria, like all of Gemetria life, are defined by debt [71]. The State considers the people that live in Gemetria to be investments[72]. Gemetrians are organized into classes based on how successful they are in matters concerning to the State. A citizen is a Gemetrian that has produced more than was invested in it. A citizen is allows a range of freedoms, including speech and democratic rights[73]. Freedoms are still more limited than a citizen of a more traditional democracy, as any action or call to action that can be interpreted as sedition towards the State[74], or State interests is dealt with quite harshly. In extreme cases, Gemetrians of any ilk may be declared “heretics” and be summarily destroyed by the Ordo Corinthia [75].

“ If an investment has not yet repaid their investment by the State (but are deemed to be still a good investment), they are a helot. Most of the population belongs to the helot class, and while they are granted little in the way of freedoms, it is still considered to be an honorable class. They are in a sense “owned” by the Great Company (Magna Societas) [76] that they work for, but almost all of the Magna Societas treat their human resources quite well.

“ If an investment is deemed bad by the State, they are cast out of the walls of their city, and denied State resources and funding. These are the Fallen. They form large slums and ghettos outside of the city walls. Revolt is less likely than it would seem, because the Ordo Anshanti stalk silently through the fetid streets and shacks of the ghettos. Many of the Fallen also are quite keen to report the sedition of others of the Fell to the Ordo Anshanti [77] as this information is heavily rewarded, and can lead to reinduction into the ranks of the helot [4].

“ Criminals are also Fallen, but have gotten into debt by way of criminal actions. A murderer is responsible for the total economic impact that the victim was maximally predicted to have had. Theft, embezzlement, rape, and other crimes are treated accordingly. The Tree calculates the total cost of the criminal action, and most court cases are simply haggling over these Impact Calculations. Some crimes are calculated differently, and it is hard to lay out the full and overwhelming complexity of the near-science that is the bread and butter of the Impact Calculation Oracles in this modest paper. These calculations are scaled by the size that the criminal can pay, this means that while the very richest Gemetrian citizen can “get away with murder”, the financial penalty is considerably higher than a helot accused of the same crime. A sentence is served when a portion of the debt is repaid at one of Gemetria’s government licensed and run. If the Gemetrian has commited sedition or a violent crime, and is deemed to be impossible to rehabilitate, then they are sentenced to death. Until 18 years ago, the economic dependants [78] of the criminal were transferred the debt of the criminal. Reforms have lead to this being changed so a criminal debt is annulled at death, just like many other kinds of debt.

“ Very few cases are waged on whether the deed was done or not, as surveillance and police presence are both ubiquitous[79]. Gemetrians living in cities are tagged at birth with chip attached to the base of their neck [34] that encode their identity and can be used to track them. Their DNA[80], fingerprints[79], and retinal information[63] (possibly other forms of information[45]) is kept in central databases. Almost all buildings in Gemetria are also wired up with varied EM and sonic recording devices. Tampering with any security equipment, including surgically implanted chips, is a serious crime…”

OOC

Very clever form of government which drives production but your monitary value is still incorrect.
I suggest you read this to understand how to better coordinate the value of your money.
Capital Marx Efficiency

Your mode of Government is based on a previous writing of mine.
Social Pool

I was wondering if you beleive your system has managed to balance this social pool. Helots still have debt to society. Do most citizens graduate from being a helot and die after giving more income to the state than they have taken?

What about all of these bad investments that are sitting in the ghetos?

If you do not understand the Captial Marx efficiency system please visit this page.

Marx efficiency system

C-Ton still finds it a human rights violation.. is there a way we can take your nation to international courts?

C-Ton

OCC: Your pool analogy assumes a zero sums game. The debt of a Gemetrian is not solely the money invested in them, but also a fraction of their projected production value. Like taxes. You will realize that modern governments lose much in the way of "bad investments", people who take more from the system than they put it, and yet they are still viable forms.

It would be basically like modern government, but you are on the hook for your education, your share of government projects, your health care, etc. The State forgives a small amount of debt, but will rid itself of thoses who amass too much without a way of repayment. I don't think that this is really too different than many modern governments, expect for attitude and social implication.

Do you think that China can be taken to international courts?