No Such Agency
Absolutely.

The people who are deviant often times don't have an investment in the community in which they harm, throwing them in prison in order to "punish" them will only give them an environment in which they can learn other methods and ways of thinking to commit more crimes. When they have been branded criminals, they will have an even harder time finding a job. Unfortunately for those who call for blood, making life hard for "criminals" once they get outside of prison just defeats the purpose, if they can't manage to find a job because of their past, how can they change and reconcile their future? Consider also how many prison guards there are compared to how many inmates. How exactly do you expect a small number of uniformed underpaid men to keep control of a population easily 10X their number if the prisoners rioted? Guards often bring in drugs because they have such low pay, and prisoners are bought off with things such as video games and television so they will be more complacent.
There have been programs in which prisoners have been given job skills, especially those of carpentry. In fact, a prison administrator started a furniture business that made high quality hand mate furniture and expanded it to include a number of interested inmates. They were so successful in selling the furniture that inmates started to get profit share, and as soon as the public outside of the prison found out that some of the inmates were making more than they were a year in profit sharing (they had become self sufficient inside the prison) the program was promptly shut down.
Sorry to tell you blood seekers this, but revenge and deterrence don't work all that well. In order to decrease and rehabilitate, you can't disenfranchise, they have to be engaged and invested. If they feel that the laws support them, they will support the laws. It isn't about you feeling empathy for them, but teaching them why they should have empathy for you, and prison is not a good place to do that... instead chances are prison will just make them resentful. Remember the quip, no one in prison is guilty. If they don't see themselves as guilty, how can you expect them to repent and mean it?

i say good idea. whatever helps the prison maintain some order. you can be hardass all the time, but what's that gonna do to the guy who just doesn't care? just because the punishment is harsh doesn't mean someone won't do it again.

besides, we all know how good staring at a wall for hours a day would really rehab someone...

I_B_OTAY

Well put.

Thanks for the positive responses and not flaming me on my typo's =)

On a semi-related note, there was an article the other day that showed that children given Gameboys before surgery were much more relaxed than those given sedatives or going in with their parents. The kids are so zoned out to realize they are about to be operated on.

Great quote, and one with which I agree completely. You don't coddle the convicts by giving them porn, weight rooms, and video games. You protect the farking guards by doing that. Moralistic farkers who complain about the cush ride prisoners get somehow don't understand this, but then again, they don't understand much.

The Timaeus

I say anyone serving 7+ years in prison or anyone in on charges for a harsh crime, should just be put down like the useless dogs they are.

So, lets say someone goes to jail for something like Money Laundering. That carries a sentence of over 7 years. Should this person be sentenced to death? I think not. The death penalty should not used to off every criminal that enters the system for more than a couple of years. Our system is designed so that these people can learn from their mistakes and (hopefully) not commit them again. Killing the vast majority of people who enter is absurd and would make the prision system pointless.

Now to the actual issue here. I think video games in jails is a bit too much of a luxury. Let them have TVs in common areas, but video games is a bit too much. They are there to be punished after all, not to have fun. I agree that keeping them locked up in a box all day isn't the answer, but this is a bit much. What's next, LAN parties?

What is the average now? 1 out of 7 people that you pass on the street has a police record!? I am 55 when I was half that age and you were found drunk driving in your home town they took you home! Now they woke up to the fact that HAY WE CAN MAKE MONEY OFF THIS POOR BASTARD AND MILK HIM FOR A YEAR!! CLASSES ABOUT DRINKIN, HI I AM A DRUNK 1 THRU 12! KISS MY HUMBLE ASS BUT IT IS MY BUSINESS! No, I have never been to any drug classes but many of my friends have and it is just a money maker! Throw the Tea over the side! It is getting so a man can't piss out his own back door, said me.

go jondular

Here's the latest trend in Prisons:

"Supermax Prisons" - Jerome Miller

These prisons use computer technology to exile and control inmates by keeping them in around-the-clock isolation from virtually all human contact. Inmates are invisible, allowed no programs or contact with other inmates. They are fed through slots in a door and are usually kept in their cells 23 hours a day.

Ironically, the purpose of these prisons is not to contain those who have committed the most egregious crimes on the street. Rather, the supermax is a simple mangement tool, a tangible threat for keeping potentially disruptive inmates in less secure facilities under control. Inmates are placed in here because wardens judge them to be a management problem in another prison and in need of being "taught a lesson."

Inmates are sentenced to the supermax for a minimum of 13 months, with no possible reduction. Should an inmate commit an infraction of the rules (e.g. speak to a guard in an unapproved way), he must begin his 13-month confinement all over again.

Each cell has a metal toilet, a washbowl, and a thin mattress. There are two 4" x 12" windows covered by a thick steel mesh. The cell door is a solid steel except for a 3" x 6" opening. The cells are 8' x 12'. Kept for 23 hours a day, when an inmate is to leave his cell, he must first strip naked and hand his clothes through a small slot in the wall. The inmate is examined, puts his clothes back on, and is handcuffed.

Time outside the cell consists of running around in circles in a 20' x 20' steel mesh-enclosed cage."

Is this what we want in our prisons? I know the idea is to make them "not want to come back", but this is just rendering people insane.

I suppose my take on this situation is that there are lots of "should bes". For example, there "should be" enough guards to watch and control all prisoners all the time, so that any rowdiness/riots/illegal behaviour is stopped promptly. Prisons "should be" places of rehabilitation, and punishment (in my mind). You did something wrong, you should pay for it. So serve the sentence, learn what you did was wrong, and find a way to become a productive member of society afterwards.

I don't believe it's very fair for someone who broke the laws to receive three meals a day, a roof over his head, and access to a console system while I work full time (at a minimum wage type job) and can barely afford to do the same as I obey those same laws!

Unfortunately the North American justice systems (America and Canada have similarities as well as differences in this regard) have yet to find the balance between punishment and rehabilitation, and all the money pouring into the system isn't enough to properly protect the guards and the inmates from themselves and each other.

No wonder the US has such a high incarceration rate!

Few problems with your post Espertron:

Counseling and rehab don't work. They never did, and they never will. The only people it helps are the people who genuinely want to kick whatever habit they have. What percentage do you think that is? 1-2%?

Psychological counseling is a joke because psychology in itself has become a joke.

Education? A degree? MUAHAHA...for what? No one is going to hire a felon for any job that pays enough where they won't feel the need to commit a crime again. Hell, you can be barred from a good job for not paying your bills on time now.

Eliminate corruption? State/federal oversight? MUAHAHA...haven't been paying much attention to the news lately, eh?

And for all of you people complaining about how easy prisoners have it while you work your ass off...says something about the increasingly small rewards for being a good citizen in your society now, doesn't it? But you keep working those 60-80 hour weeks and shopping at Wal-Mart and crossing your fingers...SOME DAY it will pay off...

I dont deal with REAL prisons a lot, but rather this new industry of private prisons in the USA for children that claim to offer therapy for anything, like depression, PTSD, actual mental probs, behavior probs, bad grades, being gay, or the new spouce doesn't like your kids, or you just dont give a fark and want to turn them over. They claim to be a behavior mod school, or a residential treatment center, or whatever.

Basically, all they do is lock the kids up, put them in 'regressional therapy' seminars that are basically cult brainwashing (dont believe me? go check up yourself at http://nospank.net/bean.htm and even if you are pro spanking, what a psychologist says about those SEMINARS still applies, excuse the domain name) physically brutalize them and force them to submit and do as told to an extreme. Prison, ironically, is not as bad, unless the inmates make it worse on eachother. Dont believe me? go to www.isaccorp.org and read up.

It doesnt fix anything, just farks them up. The only way it actually manages to make them act better (if they had a problem in the first place...) is that they're terrified of going back and thus get in line. If they have real psychological issues, they just hide the symptoms to seem 'fixed'

I doubt ADULTS are going to get scared into submission and do as told, as it only works on SOME children!

Why are we wasting our farking time? Torturous environments, or putting people into environments where they can torutre eachother doesnt fix or do anything except mess them up, make them mad, or LEAST likely of all, terrify them into submission? Either kill them, deport them, put them into a second class society, or actually try to rehabilitate. Making them WORSE and wasting money is not somehow a good thing!

But, I degress, I was only dealing with activism for this child-torture crap, not adult-prison where they actually did something -crap. I just dont think becuase they're 'grown ups' doing something horrible to them is actually going to do anything but make money for the prisons. Thats all it does for the businesses that warehouse and abuse kids.

birdboy,

you
are
a
dick

The Kiddo: I don't believe it's very fair for someone who broke the laws to receive three meals a day, a roof over his head, and access to a console system while I work full time (at a minimum wage type job) and can barely afford to do the same as I obey those same laws!

Either you pay for that, or the guy who breaks laws might be waiting outside your door to kill you or rape your dog.

I'll never cease to be amazed that those aspects of prison life which cause the most outrage in "law-abiding folks" are also those that cost the least, when all is considered.

Sweet, I live in Missouri and spend most of my time playing video games, I guess i can commit crimes freely now that i know jail won't be that big of a punishment. Then again there is the prison rape aspect.
I wonder if they let them play Grand Theft Auto??

Aww, just read tfa, guess I wont be committing any crimes, they only get teh suck games.

It's funny to see that the people who demand that criminals be brutalized are the same people who are then shocked(SHOCKED) when these angry, brutalized people with no jobs and no skills have such high recidivism rates when they are released back onto the streets.

He_Hate_me - you should see what they do to children.

Prisoners cannot be forced to work because it is considered slavery.

It is slavery.

Ive been to prison in MO. and I never saw a video game.

There ought to be hard physical labor coupled with vocational training. And straw mattresses. Why are we making prison a pleasant place? Do we want them to come back?

Although I do kinda take an issue with them giving out 'amenitites' in prison..I think the whole counterbalance of violent gang rape towards weaker (often incarcerated for non-violent offenses) prisoners, evens it all out.

Keep in mind a good 60 percent of the prison population are non-violent drug offenders, with a vast majority of them being small time addicts.

Yeah so..I get busted feeding my addiction..and now I get violently raped..Something doesn't seem fair about that.

/but thats just me.

Kinda torn on this one.

On the one hand, like many others, I don't think violent criminals should have access to oxygen - let alone the latest console systems and games (especially when I can't afford them and I work for a living).

On the other hand, I'd much rather be confronted by a felon who spent the last 10 years playing GTA than I would a felon who spent the last 10 years lifting weights and learning where exactly to stick a shiv in someone...

I'm cool with the video game thing.

IMO, prisoners are just being locked up and kept away from society. I don't believe in rehabilitation. Whatever keeps them busy and quiet for the day is fine.

They wouldn't be assaulting anyone if they were hobbled.

It sounds like a bad and stupid idea until you place yourself in the shoes of an inmate, a guard, or the man in charge of keeping the peace inside. Then it sounds like a GREAT idea...

/all for it as an individual priveledge, which can be suspended if needed

I have no problem with a few small luxuries in prisons like VG's... as long as they are earned through good behavior and personal motivation. Heck, if you keep your nose clean, do your job, and keep working on your education and skills, why shouldn't you be allowed some Halo 2 goodness as a reward?

I'm surprised by the idiots in here. Why? That's my fault...

Before you voice support for brutalizing inmates, consider that they will NOT die in prison. They will be released at some point and will roam the earth FREE OF SUPERVISION. I hope none of you John Wayne Farkers (who have never been to a real jail or known anyone who has been) get stuck living next to the guy who was deprived of basic human dignity, then brutally raped and beaten within an inch of his life. Then again, maybe you are all right and that sort of treatment put him right back on the straight-n-narrow!

/they bag your groceries and cook your food. do not fcuk with them

SenorDiablo

Average Farker's reply to your well-thought-out statement: Shut up and die! I want to see them hanging from their ankles!!! They deserve every anal penetration they get!!! They all just come out of prison angry and violent anyway, so let's kill em all inside!1!11

Makes more sense than giving them workout equipment.
I'd rather have skinny nerdy video game playing criminals released than buff weightlifting steroid enraged badasses.

Ok now seriously the number of differences between my apartment and a prison have dropped to maybe 4 or 5.

If I was in jail, I'd try to remember the good old days by playing Grand Theft Auto.