Prisons too soft?

[skintsaint]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/inmates-want-more-tv-sport-channels-085234040.html

 

 

Personally they shouldnt even have TVs...but there you go.

[Turkish]

The usual clap trap written by some middle class c*nt who never spent a day in a cell. With the usual knee jerk reaction from others who have never spent a day in a cell.

[skintsaint]

The usual clap trap written by some middle class c*nt who never spent a day in a cell. With the usual knee jerk reaction from others who have never spent a day in a cell.

 

Claps

 

great contribution.

[Turkish]

Claps

 

great contribution.

 

About as good as the "they shouldn't even have TV's" from you then.

[Dog]

They shouldn't have toilet paper.

[skintsaint]

The usual clap trap written by some middle class c*nt who never spent a day in a cell. With the usual knee jerk reaction from others who have never spent a day in a cell.

 

Cat B prisons normally house people who have commited violent crimes, assault, robbery etc and also people considered to be a danger to society. Please tell me why you think these people should be allowed outside luxuries while serving their sentence?

[Turkish]

Cat B prisons normally house people who have commited violent crimes, assault, robbery etc and also people considered to be a danger to society. Please tell me why you think people should be allowed outside luxuries while serving their sentence?

 

They are also holding prisons for people awaiting catagorisation so also hold people in for white collar crimes as well.

 

The only prisoners in Cat B prisions who recieve priviledges like TV's have to work in the prison kitchens, workshops or as wing cleaners and pay 50p a week out of their wage of around £7 that they get for doing these jobs. They also recieve the "priviledge" of around 45 minutes a day of "social and domestic" where they can use the wing phones to ring families, take a shower and clean their cells. Prisoners who do not work do not get TV's and get S&D once every two or three days if they are lucky. It's called the carrot or the stick philosophy. But i am sure that in your experience and knowledge you would have know this already.

[skintsaint]

You didnt answer my question - only what happens at the moment.

 

They should work for while in prison but shouldnt be granted things like TV with it.

[rallyboy]

call me old school but they are criminals and deserve punishment - so they should be forced outside and made to live in Bridgend.

If that isn't bad enough they should be married off to tubby alcoholic welsh slappers with annoyingly shrill voices and no fashion sense or dignity.

[Turkish]

You didnt answer my question - only what happens at the moment.

 

They should work for while in prison but shouldnt be granted things like TV with it.

 

I did answer. Prison is the punishment for the crime. Losing your liberty, being away from your friends and family etc etc. Whilst in prison, whilst it's still punishment by just being there it's also about rehabilition. Giving prisioners incentives to work, such as a small wage and a TV for them to watch is a reward for behaving whilst inside. Misbehave or refuse to work and they lose it.

 

I know the media will have everyone believe that prisons are full of people sitting around smoking weed, sipping on smuggled in beer whilst playing Xbox on a widescreen TV they selected from the Argos catalogue when they walked in but the reality is very different to that.

 

So what do you think is the answer? Think of this as a Prison Officer or Governer by the way, not someone who had read to many articles in the newspapers and naively believes everything they are told.

[Wadge]

I have served 4 months in a Cat B prison and can confirm it is soft. I was in Norwich just before the tv's and playstations available in each cell was brought in. I served the majority of my time on the drug free wing, and had to be **** tested every 2 weeks to be able to stay on that wing. The other identical wing was full of skag heads, there was no benefit as such to being on the drug free wing other than being away from the the biggest scummy people. The fact they have a drug free wing in prison beggars belief, but believe me after visits, you would only see 10% of B wing out on exercise, the rest would be in their cells off their face.

 

The plus side of prison was I honed my pool skills and also my table tennis ability, I was **** hot at table tennis. I did work in the work shop for 4 hours a day and got paid £7 a week for it, that is a joke really, work should have been for free and give you something to get out of your cell for.

 

At most it was like a holiday camp, I lost 2 stone, toned up on the weights and played alot of pool & table tennis. The most interesting thing was 90% of the people in the prison were there for drugs related crimes, if you legalised drugs or just gave them away on the NHS the prisons would be virtually empty, saving millions of tax payers money and also saving millions of pounds of peoples possessions that are stolen every year and the mental anguish which accompanies it.

 

For me it was my first offence, never been spoken to by the police before and it was violent disorder, i threw 5 drunken punches and at best hit someone on the shoulder and nearly fell in a big plant pot. A new CCTV system made the sentence stiff to prove its worth.

[sambosa75]

I have served 4 months in a Cat B prison and can confirm it is soft. I was in Norwich just before the tv's and playstations available in each cell was brought in. I served the majority of my time on the drug free wing, and had to be **** tested every 2 weeks to be able to stay on that wing. The other identical wing was full of skag heads, there was no benefit as such to being on the drug free wing other than being away from the the biggest scummy people. The fact they have a drug free wing in prison beggars belief, but believe me after visits, you would only see 10% of B wing out on exercise, the rest would be in their cells off their face.

 

The plus side of prison was I honed my pool skills and also my table tennis ability, I was **** hot at table tennis. I did work in the work shop for 4 hours a day and got paid £7 a week for it, that is a joke really, work should have been for free and give you something to get out of your cell for.

 

At most it was like a holiday camp, I lost 2 stone, toned up on the weights and played alot of pool & table tennis. The most interesting thing was 90% of the people in the prison were there for drugs related crimes, if you legalised drugs or just gave them away on the NHS the prisons would be virtually empty, saving millions of tax payers money and also saving millions of pounds of peoples possessions that are stolen every year and the mental anguish which accompanies it.

 

For me it was my first offence, never been spoken to by the police before and it was violent disorder, i threw 5 drunken punches and at best hit someone on the shoulder and nearly fell in a big plant pot. A new CCTV system made the sentence stiff to prove its worth.

 

Imagine the tax income from legalising drugs as well. Very surprised they haven't even considered this.

[scott_saints]

I have a mate who loves prison and has no problem about being sent back if it happens.

 

He enjoys it and apparently had the best christmas dinner he's ever had there.

 

So yeah, I'd say they are too soft based on this.

[Micky]

I have served 4 months in a Cat B prison and can confirm it is soft. I was in Norwich just before the tv's and playstations available in each cell was brought in. I served the majority of my time on the drug free wing, and had to be **** tested every 2 weeks to be able to stay on that wing. The other identical wing was full of skag heads, there was no benefit as such to being on the drug free wing other than being away from the the biggest scummy people. The fact they have a drug free wing in prison beggars belief, but believe me after visits, you would only see 10% of B wing out on exercise, the rest would be in their cells off their face.

 

The plus side of prison was I honed my pool skills and also my table tennis ability, I was **** hot at table tennis. I did work in the work shop for 4 hours a day and got paid £7 a week for it, that is a joke really, work should have been for free and give you something to get out of your cell for.

 

At most it was like a holiday camp, I lost 2 stone, toned up on the weights and played alot of pool & table tennis. The most interesting thing was 90% of the people in the prison were there for drugs related crimes, if you legalised drugs or just gave them away on the NHS the prisons would be virtually empty, saving millions of tax payers money and also saving millions of pounds of peoples possessions that are stolen every year and the mental anguish which accompanies it.

 

For me it was my first offence, never been spoken to by the police before and it was violent disorder, i threw 5 drunken punches and at best hit someone on the shoulder and nearly fell in a big plant pot. A new CCTV system made the sentence stiff to prove its worth.

 

Thanks for that - it's actually refreshing to get it 'from the horses mouth', one of the best's post I have read in the lounge for some time.

[Dog]

I have a mate who loves prison and has no problem about being sent back if it happens.

 

He enjoys it and apparently had the best christmas dinner he's ever had there.

 

So yeah, I'd say they are too soft based on this.

 

 

Gary Glitter?

[Elias]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/inmates-want-more-tv-sport-channels-085234040.html

 

 

Personally they shouldnt even have TVs...but there you go.

 

Parc is a private prison so don't think that it's representative of proper prisons. These places are staffed with private security guards and so to ensure some level of discipline they ditch out lots of perks. Some private prisons have telephones available in cells. Today HMP Birmingham (Winson Green) was given to the same private security firm who run Parc so I suppose outrageously good conditions could become more common.

[Thedelldays]

I have no idea of prison life...but if it is decided prison is too soft maybe they should be run more like a military detention centre in some cases

 

the numbers that get send back to colchester are around 0-1%

[Elias]

I have no idea of prison life...but if it is decided prison is too soft maybe they should be run more like a military detention centre in some cases

 

the numbers that get send back to colchester are around 0-1%

 

I can see how a more military set-up might be worthwhile with Young Offenders, give them discipline and routine.

[Turkish]

The thing that you all seem to be forgetting is being sent to prison is the punishment for your offence. Losing your liberty, being away from your life, family, friends etc. Being sent to prison is the punishment. Coming out is also a punishment, offenders have to tell potential employers about convictions and time away, would you take someone on that had had just got out of the nick If you had interviewed 10 other people that hadn't?

 

Should they be made to live off bread and water and locked up 24 hours a day? Maybe some should.

Don't get me wrong alot of people in prison are cu*ts, who deserve everything they get, there are also alot of people who know-nothing else than a criminal life, there are others who have made one mistake and been dished out justice from a system more intent on justifying cost, satisfying the media and proving a point than actually giving people sentances they deserve. Some deserve the treatment, some deserve the bang up and bread and water future, but not all of them do, which is why the carrot or stick is right for our prisons. They've been punished by being there. When they are there behave and work you'll be rewarded, dont and you won't. This comes from the horses mouth by the way, someone that has been there and done it, not someone that had read too many guardian articles.

[View From The Top]

Having done time myself in a Cat B and a Cat D I agree totally and utterly with Turkish.

 

For many, myself included, your sentence doesn't end on your release.

[pap]

Imagine the tax income from legalising drugs as well. Very surprised they haven't even considered this.

 

The points about the legalisation of drugs are well made.

 

In pure public health terms, the legal drugs also do a lot of damage, but you don't see off licence owners or newsagents banged up for selling their wares.

 

Every pound we spend on enforcement or imprisoning those who are caught is wasted, in my view. Plus you need to take on board what VFTT and Turkish have said about the difficulties of having stuff on your permanent record and getting back into employement.

 

Prison should be reserved for truly exceptional behaviour which society does not want in its midst. I'm talking violent offences, sexual assaults, crimes against the person, basically.

 

I've said it before, but we spend all this money on drug enforcement essentially to say "we don't approve of this". Politicians won't even countenance it ( Miliband came up with some piffly explanation which essentially amounted to "drugs are bad m'kay".

 

People are going to play around with recreational chemicals, irrespective of whether they are legal or not. For some, the contraband status makes it all the more alluring. Speaking only for myself, alcohol was a lot "cooler" when we had to find our under-age companion with the deepest voice and the largest amount of stubble to buy it for us.

 

The country owes a ton of money. Not only could we pay a lot of that back with the taxation raised, but we could also ensure that prisons are a last resort for those that are really deserving of a custodial sentence.

[Elias]

The thing that you all seem to be forgetting is being sent to prison is the punishment for your offence. Losing your liberty, being away from your life, family, friends etc. Being sent to prison is the punishment. Coming out is also a punishment, offenders have to tell potential employers about convictions and time away, would you take someone on that had had just got out of the nick If you had interviewed 10 other people that hadn't?

 

Should they be made to live off bread and water and locked up 24 hours a day? Maybe some should.

Don't get me wrong alot of people in prison are cu*ts, who deserve everything they get, there are also alot of people who know-nothing else than a criminal life, there are others who have made one mistake and been dished out justice from a system more intent on justifying cost, satisfying the media and proving a point than actually giving people sentances they deserve. Some deserve the treatment, some deserve the bang up and bread and water future, but not all of them do, which is why the carrot or stick is right for our prisons. They've been punished by being there. When they are there behave and work you'll be rewarded, dont and you won't. This comes from the horses mouth by the way, someone that has been there and done it, not someone that had read too many guardian articles.

 

What side of the door? Just interested in seeing which perspective you're coming from. I guess either experience is more valuable than a purely media based point of view.

[sambosa75]

The points about the legalisation of drugs are well made.

 

In pure public health terms, the legal drugs also do a lot of damage, but you don't see off licence owners or newsagents banged up for selling their wares.

 

Every pound we spend on enforcement or imprisoning those who are caught is wasted, in my view. Plus you need to take on board what VFTT and Turkish have said about the difficulties of having stuff on your permanent record and getting back into employement.

 

Prison should be reserved for truly exceptional behaviour which society does not want in its midst. I'm talking violent offences, sexual assaults, crimes against the person, basically.

 

I've said it before, but we spend all this money on drug enforcement essentially to say "we don't approve of this". Politicians won't even countenance it ( Miliband came up with some piffly explanation which essentially amounted to "drugs are bad m'kay".

 

People are going to play around with recreational chemicals, irrespective of whether they are legal or not. For some, the contraband status makes it all the more alluring. Speaking only for myself, alcohol was a lot "cooler" when we had to find our under-age companion with the deepest voice and the largest amount of stubble to buy it for us.

 

The country owes a ton of money. Not only could we pay a lot of that back with the taxation raised, but we could also ensure that prisons are a last resort for those that are really deserving of a custodial sentence.

 

All valid points and from a health perspective legalised drugs would not be cut with other chemicals far more damaging that the actual narcotics themselves. A few months ago I was round a mates house and he was banging on about this legal high he had bought called AMT which I had no interest in trying. Eventually I succumbed, just to shut him up and had a tiny amount in a bomb thinking it would take effect for a few minutes, wear off and then I could tell him it was sh!t and we could move on with the night. I was tripping and absolutely spannered for over 24 hours just from this tiny amount. Believe me when I say I'm not exactly a light weight. The fact that this stuff would not wear off for such a long time and is legal, yet mushrooms give you a funnier, quicker buzz and are illegal was a massive wake up call.

[View From The Top]

What side of the door? Just interested in seeing which perspective you're coming from. I guess either experience is more valuable than a purely media based point of view.

 

Speaking for him, the wrong side.

[bridge too far]

I was hearing today that 50% of prisoners don't even have the reading age of an 11 year old.

 

I am in no way on the side of offenders but it does occur to me that maybe some people get into crime because they've been let down by our education system. Not being able to read must be a real handicap if you're trying to get work and maybe that's why some resort to crime.

 

Prison should be about punishment but, more importantly, it should be about rehabilitation. Teach a prisoner to read and write and s/he might develop some self-esteem and stand a better chance of getting work (well, not at the moment, obviously...)

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/03/illiteracy-innumeracy-prisons

 

Old article but the subject has been raised again recently.

[pap]

All valid points and from a health perspective legalised drugs would not be cut with other chemicals far more damaging that the actual narcotics themselves. A few months ago I was round a mates house and he was banging on about this legal high he had bought called AMT which I had no interest in trying. Eventually I succumbed, just to shut him up and had a tiny amount in a bomb thinking it would take effect for a few minutes, wear off and then I could tell him it was sh!t and we could move on with the night. I was tripping and absolutely spannered for over 24 hours just from this tiny amount. Believe me when I say I'm not exactly a light weight. The fact that this stuff would not wear off for such a long time and is legal, yet mushrooms give you a funnier, quicker buzz and are illegal was a massive wake up call.

 

Yeah, I would not be a fan of these legal highs myself.

 

I actually like what Bill Hicks had to say about mushrooms and marijuana. Banning them is like saying "God was wrong".

 

But on a more serious note, it's interesting to compare the way that different societies deal with the issue of narcotics. I remember the mass hysteria surrounding ecstasy when it first came out. At its height, ecstasy was claimed to have caused 40 deaths in one year. That same year, 33,000 people died through alcohol related causes.

 

A big problem is education. Instead of accepting that people are going to do stuff, our government just made the subject effectively taboo. This meant that a lot of people who ended up using the drug had no clue about the effects of it, save that it might kill you. If the Government had really been concerned about the effects of ecstasy, they'd have got off their high horses and told clubbers not to drink too much water ( drowning your own brain was a big cause of ecstasy related death ) and not to get too hot ( body loses a lot of its ability to regulate its own temperature ).

 

The other cause of death wasn't actually ecstasy per se, but the contaminants that it was cut with.

 

On the other side of the English Channel, the Dutch government took a different view. They educated their young people, legislated so that clubs had to have adequate legislation and provided testing kits gratis so people could be sure that they were buying kosher stuff. To my knowledge, the Dutch have never recorded a single death which was entirely caused by ecstasy.

 

We just need to be grown up about this. Prohibition has never worked, can never work, and causes more problems than it solves.

[sambosa75]

Yeah, I would not be a fan of these legal highs myself.

 

I actually like what Bill Hicks had to say about mushrooms and marijuana. Banning them is like saying "God was wrong".

 

But on a more serious note, it's interesting to compare the way that different societies deal with the issue of narcotics. I remember the mass hysteria surrounding ecstasy when it first came out. At its height, ecstasy was claimed to have caused 40 deaths in one year. That same year, 33,000 people died through alcohol related causes.

 

A big problem is education. Instead of accepting that people are going to do stuff, our government just made the subject effectively taboo. This meant that a lot of people who ended up using the drug had no clue about the effects of it, save that it might kill you. If the Government had really been concerned about the effects of ecstasy, they'd have got off their high horses and told clubbers not to drink too much water ( drowning your own brain was a big cause of ecstasy related death ) and not to get too hot ( body loses a lot of its ability to regulate its own temperature ).

 

The other cause of death wasn't actually ecstasy per se, but the contaminants that it was cut with.

 

On the other side of the English Channel, the Dutch government took a different view. They educated their young people, legislated so that clubs had to have adequate legislation and provided testing kits gratis so people could be sure that they were buying kosher stuff. To my knowledge, the Dutch have never recorded a single death which was entirely caused by ecstasy.

 

We just need to be grown up about this. Prohibition has never worked, can never work, and causes more problems than it solves.

 

It's been proven that making something illegal doesn't stop people doing it. If anything it simply encourages people selling it to cut it with cheaper, potentially more harmful substances to increase their profit margins. Not that I'm massively in to the whole "scene" any more but I'd have much rather bought a clean pill and spent £20 on it then take a gamble from some matey in a club for a fiver. Same with charlie, I'd have rather paid £80 for a gram of top, u**** stuff then gamble on paying £40 for some thing you didn't know what was it in. If the government legalised it and regulated the quality, they could get away with charging a lot more than what you can get it for from some bloke on the street.