Criminals sent to prison for life-sentences, with no chance of parole, should be afforded the same opportunity to take advantage of Cryonics as any "free person" should, with specific legal stipulations;
That the prisoner cover all costs of the cryonics; from having their recently deceased bodies temporarily 'frozen' (See: Emergency Preparedness for a Local Cryonics Group document by Ben Best), shipped from the prison facilities, and having neuropreservation (their heads) or full bodies vitrified and stored at the cryonics facility.
Upon being brought back to life sometime in the future, the prisoner will proceed to live out the rest of their lives in the future prison.
Prison statutory reforms will need to take place within a particular state/provincial jurisdiction to cover the cost to tax payers for keeping them in prison. In the likely or unlikely event this "cryonics prisoner rights" law is repealed sometime during the patient's cryonics freezing, upon being fully revived the prisoner will immediately be informed of said repealment. The prisoner will then be left with no other choice but to work off the rest of their days in prison making future products; linens and license plates (or equivalent) to help offset the cost of their stay.
In the future prison, overhead costs will be dramatically reduced with the introduction of machine-based guards and more automated processes; such as food distribution to prisoners (which were typically handled by humans in the 21st century). This will dramatically reduce the cost to hold the prisoner in their facilities.
Prisoners serving out life-sentences shouldn't have the 'freedom' to walk free in the future. A life sentence is a life sentence.
Prisoners on death-row should not have the ability to take advantage of any cryonics services at all. The judge and jury made a lawful decision sentence the prisoner to death. Cryonics could be seen as death avoidance.
Those prisoners serving lesser sentences for lesser crimes (i.e. armed robbery, fraud) should have the freedom to pay for cryonics services. Their freedom would be granted upon the possibility that their criminal behaviors could be cured with nanotechnology, RNAi, etc. By acquiescing, the future prisoner could then walk free in the future world. Otherwise, if the technology is not readily available, this prisoner will then continue to serve out the remainder of their sentence.
Prisoners on death-row should not have the ability to take advantage of any cryonics services at all. The judge and jury made a lawful decision sentence the prisoner to death. Cryonics could be seen as death avoidance.
This only makes sense if one thinks that there's an intrinsic good in obeying "lawful decisions" and that that good is large enough to outweigh an opportunity to prevent complete and utter information death of a sentient entity. That's a claim that requires a lot of justification.
(On a related note, if there was a specific relig...
If someone is sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty, should they also be prohibited from signing up for cryonics? Specifically, I'm referring to people like these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_death_row_inmates
I am not talking about providing it for them, just allowing them to sign up for it provided they can somehow get enough money together and allowing a response team into the prison to retrieve the body after the prisoner has died or been executed by lethal injection. I think they should be allowed access to cryonics, because we don't know enough yet about the brain to determine how much of their criminal behavior is due to mental illness/disorder and how much is due to free will. It may be possible to diagnose and cure people like Jeffrey Dahmer in the future before they commit any crimes, or to cure those already in prison such that they won't commit any more crimes.
As cryonics gets more and more popular, this will become an issue, especially when the first death row inmate wants to sign up for it.