Wait... so I have the option of just sitting there playing gmes and watching TV all day? My meals are free? Who do I shoot?

Thank god you made it clear these 'taxpayers' are not Americans, subby.

It's Australia. If criminals weren't having PlayStations purchased for them, no one would ever sell a video game there. :p

Lobster was once so plentiful in the US northeast that it was used as prison food. "No more lobster!" was a chant used by prisoners during more than one prison riot.

Oh yeah! This makes prison FUN! Let's all go there!

Personally, I prefer a lifestyle that includes freedom. Especially freedom from prisoners ;)

If it reduces violence, enhances conformity to rules, increases some educational awareness (documentary or educational television is required), then it will likely reduce costs. IF that IS the case, then more power to the Aussies for implementing this.

I'd rather prisoners get fat, lazy, and stupid, than spend their free times pumping iron, and trading around tips to hotwire cars and short-circuit alarm systems.

Oh, for that one you need to go to the DFAC at Anaconda on Fridays. Sorry forgot to send you the memo.

I have no objection to prisoners watching TV to connect to the outside world as long as they only watch CSPAN or their countries equivalent.

Do they get to play Grand Theft Auto and Hitman??

exick: It's Australia. If criminals weren't having PlayStations purchased for them, no one would ever sell a video game there. :p

Actually the article says the inmates have to pay for them. Also says a "four-channel pay tv service", and mentions two of the four channels must be educational or documentary-only. Definitely not Showtime-HD.

Not exactly the Ritz-Carlton, but, it gives the ITG's something to yell about.

TheR0CK: Do they get to play Grand Theft Auto and Hitman??

The article says they can only play PG rated games.

i hear lobster is fairly cheap these days

/relatively

How is this different from ordinary NZ citizens?

exick: It's Australia. If criminals weren't having PlayStations purchased for them, no one would ever sell a video game there. :p

Damn, if that was such a zinger i'd get all righteous on your ass.

Good one.

I'm pretty sure the prisoners aren't that much better off for having these things because they have to deal with the reality of being in PRISON. Stabbings, rapes, murders, insanity, and isolation are no game. I hate when people act like by doing this we are somehow making prison fun instead of a punishment. It's not as if people WANT to go to prison because of the food and video games.

The only Australian video game I'd like to play is pin the tail on Elle Macpherson. Video, audio, tactile...

Playstations? Not even ps2?
Old technology, surely that's torture.

Authorities said the stimulation helped inmates connect to the outside world and excluded R and X-rated shows

How can they possibly hope for inmates to adjust to the outside world without some good hard core porn? fail.

Headline: Taxpayers foot the bill for prisoners' PlayStations, pay-per-view TV, and movies. What? No lobster dinners?

Actual Article: Inmates who have a game system in their cell must pay for it and cannot play games rated higher than PG.

Anyone notice the list of popular articles on the right?

#1 Python nearly swallows wallaby whole
#2 Baz bows to pressure for happy ending
#3 Teenage girls at centre of STD plague
#4 Savage blow to musical duo
#5 Terminator touted for Obama's cabinet
#6 Grade 6 pupils overdose at school event
#7 Woman's fishy-smelling mystery solved

What kind of society prioritizes pythons failing to swallow a wallaby over teenage girls with stds, happy endings and the solving of fishy smells?

Brought to you by the LSA: The Liberal States of Australia.

Coming soon to a USA near you courtesy of zombie voters.

/OBAMAAAA! CHANGE! OBAMAAA! YES WE CAN YES WE CAN!
//OBAMAAA! BRAAAAAINS WE CAN INDULGE IN!!

If you deprive people in prison of everything and treat them like crap, they'll probably turn into monsters, which is fine as long as you're not a guard and you never plan on letting them out. The vast majority of people in prison will be released, so it is a good thing to not turn them into more dangerous people than when they went in.

elguerodiablo:

What kind of society prioritizes pythons failing to swallow a wallaby over teenage girls with stds, happy endings and the solving of fishy smells?

This is from The Herald Sun, please don't think this newspaper sums up Australian society in general.

Royal Vodak: Brought to you by the LSA: The Liberal States of Australia.

Coming soon to a USA near you courtesy of zombie voters.

/OBAMAAAA! CHANGE! OBAMAAA! YES WE CAN YES WE CAN!
//OBAMAAA! BRAAAAAINS WE CAN INDULGE IN!!

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you read neither TFA nor TFT. Read before you post.

Really, I guess it depends on what they are in for. Tax invasion or pretty much any non-violent crime, let them have it. Burglary, however, no, let them do with out. The more serious stuff, like kidnapping and murder, bullet through the back of the head. Rape wouldn't even require therapy or a jail sentence. Just cut the penis off. Can't be fun to go through life with balls and not have the ability to masturbate.

I spent some time in a county jail, in a 48 man "pod", sort of like a barracks arrangement for non-violent offenders (with a deputy stationed in the room). We had an N64. I got really good at Mario Kart and Smash Bros. They were good about getting multi-player games and rotating them frequently.

We also had about 50 feet of book shelves filled with all the unwanted books dumped at local thrift stores.

I recognized one book as having been one I dumped on a thrift store.

Part of me thinks gym equipment should be removed. Making violent criminals stronger seems stupid.

**Threadjack**
To the anti Obama people.. (looking at you Royal Vodak)
I didn't want Obama to win either, but knock off the "but, but ,but Obama" crap. It's already getting old.
Take that shiat to the Politics tab.
**end threadjack**

I love not reading articles and being outraged by what I imagine might be in them too, sub-tard. I also heard that prisoners have pythons and 48 iPods, and savage blows, all paid for by the Nun Rape Tax and the Vestment Import Duty.

The thing about prisons, is that they're prisons.

I've visited prisons while checking on their medical equipment. 1 or 2 were minimum security prisons in Nevada. The other was San Quentin. Prisons are horrible places. The negative energy is almost palpable. The people there are there for every worst thing you can imagine. In minimum security, you are in a room with 7 other "bunkmates". Once the lockdown sounds, you're on your own..

Befuddled: If you deprive people in prison of everything and treat them like crap, they'll probably turn into monsters, which is fine as long as you're not a guard and you never plan on letting them out. The vast majority of people in prison will be released, so it is a good thing to not turn them into more dangerous people than when they went in.

Quoth I.

If you want to make people into raging psychotics, by all means, lock them into empty cells 23 hours a day 7 days a week with no recreation. It seems to be working in places like Pelican Bay and Corcoran.

Then people wonder why supermax prisons are filled with violent prisoners wild with hate who attack CO's and each other on no provocation. And why so many ex-cons seem to reoffend when given a "second chance". Hm. Can't f*cking imagine.

But who am I to argue against "get tough on crime" politicians and morons who want to overthrow the Constitution?

Treating their prisoners with reverence is an Australian cultural thing. Like paying homage to their roots. That nation's inhabitants are directly descended from re-settled British criminals.

Fark prisoners. They should get concrete boxed just barely bigger than they are. Hooray for atrophy.

Royal Vodak: Brought to you by the LSA: The Liberal States of Australia.

Coming soon to a USA near you courtesy of zombie voters.

/OBAMAAAA! CHANGE! OBAMAAA! YES WE CAN YES WE CAN!
//OBAMAAA! BRAAAAAINS WE CAN INDULGE IN!!

We're not liberal. Not even by a long shot.

Gyrfalcon: Then people wonder why supermax prisons are filled with violent prisoners wild with hate who attack CO's and each other on no provocation.

Generally, people in supermax prisons will never leave.

I say let them have the games, but only ones like hello kitty, and barbie. Also, the movies should be the worst ones that they could possibly find. And play the same movie over and over for months, only to replace it with one that sucks even more than the last.

Gyrfalcon: Then people wonder why supermax prisons are filled with violent prisoners wild with hate who attack CO's and each other on no provocation. And why so many ex-cons seem to reoffend when given a "second chance". Hm. Can't f*cking imagine.

But who am I to argue against "get tough on crime" politicians and morons who want to overthrow the Constitution?

Supermax prisons are filled with the most violent criminals because they are too violent to be housed anywhere else. These aren't your run of the mill bank robbers and rapists. These are the criminally insane, those who have proven unable to be placed in a less secure facility, and such. Someone who has already attacked and possibly murdered a CO in another facility would be a candidate to be transferred to a supermax.

What else do you propose to do with prisoners who can't be kept anywhere else? As much as anything, by putting these people in prisons with lesser security, it put the safety of other inmates at risk.

Bit'O'Gristle: Also, the movies should be the worst ones that they could possibly find. And play the same movie over and over for months, only to replace it with one that sucks even more than the last.

so liiiiiike, the rush hour series?

/words coming out of my mouth

Inmates who have a game system in their cell must pay for it and cannot play games rated higher than PG.
But taxpayers are footing the bill for inmates to receive pay-TV at Loddon and Fulham prisons


I rather them have shiat like this instead of weights of whom taxpayers still pay for

GuidoDelConfuso: Supermax prisons are filled with the most violent criminals because they are too violent to be housed anywhere else.

Supermax prisoners are in their cell almost all day. There is no entertainment. The lights are on all the time because the cameras are observing you. There are no phone calls, no uncensored mail. They sleep on a pad much like the kind you sleep on if you're backpacking. The cell is about 80 square feet. If there's a TV, there is no remote control.

drjekel_mrhyde: Inmates who have a game system in their cell must pay for it and cannot play games rated higher than PG.
But taxpayers are footing the bill for inmates to receive pay-TV at Loddon and Fulham prisons


I rather them have shiat like this instead of weights of whom taxpayers still pay for

Also I spent 2 days in Cook County Jail and we seen the movie Hero six months before it came to the US

...lobsters served as garden fertilizer and as a food staple given to widows, orphans, servants, and prisoners. It was so commonly used as a food for servants and prisoners that Massachusetts passed a law forbidding its use more than twice a week - - a daily lobster dinner was considered cruel and unusual punishment (new window)

drjekel_mrhyde: and we seen the movie Hero six months before it came to the US

"we seen"?

Sun God: Supermax prisoners are in their cell almost all day. There is no entertainment. The lights are on all the time because the cameras are observing you. There are no phone calls, no uncensored mail. They sleep on a pad much like the kind you sleep on if you're backpacking. The cell is about 80 square feet. If there's a TV, there is no remote control.

No remote? You gotta be kidding. That's what I'd truly call cruel and unusual punishment.

GuidoDelConfuso: No remote? You gotta be kidding. That's what I'd truly call cruel and unusual punishment.

It's true. If the TV is on, it's what the guards want you to see. You can't turn it off, and you can't turn it on. Usually PBS or other educational channels. Can there be anything worse?

I know someone who is currently serving time in a NC prison. TV? Yeah, one hour per day in a community room, usually the news or whatever is on at 7pm EST. Game consoles? Nope. Library? Yes - for good behavior. Her day consists of up early, then breakfast. Then off to classes (a community college in the area offers a few degrees through the place that a grant pays for). Then lunch. Then work, which can be any number of things - outdoor stuff, inside clerical work, etc. Again, this depends on how you're doing. If you're not giving them any problems and have skills you're allowed more options. A local church comes by for Sunday services and another group has started offer craft classes, which are popular. Again, if you're good you can attend these.

This is an all female joint. A few "hard core" types but they're kept out of the general population.

I used to be "lock 'em up for 23 hours/day" but I don't think that's going to do any good. For light sentences I'd rather see them do some education and counseling to help turn these folks around.

/don't get caught with any weed in some NC counties

Who do I have to kill to get a playstation around here?

Taxpayers foot the bill for everything.