Prisons are soft

[RizzyKing]

So some in prison find it hard do they ah diddums and they have to endure prison through no fault of their own don't they oh no wait thats right they are in prison for commiting a crime. Sorry but it will be a cold day in hell before i give a monkey's about criminals having a hard time in prison. We have so many other deserving groups in this country to take care of first before getting to scumbags that break the law then bitch cause they get punished for it and have to go somewhere they don't like. Oh and by the way i don't read any of the agenda ridden rags in this country be they the sun variety or the other side as both sides are full of ****. Simple way to approach things if you think you might not like it in prison DON'T BREAK THE DAMN LAW it works for tens of millions of us. As for the people moaning for the rights of these criminals i take it you work even harder for the rights of the victims of these people ?? of course not.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Help!!!

Im not to familiar how the system works but when they mean go back, do they go to the same prison each time? why dont the gov send them to different prisons where they have no mates ect...or is that the case and criminals have been to all the prisions in the uk, made friends ect?

I understood that unless there was a special requirement to go to a specific prison (ie open prison, or high security) then the local one was chosen for visitation rights etc. Why punish the family in making it hard for them to visit etc?

[sixtoes]

[quote=Xaccers;34529029]I understood that unless there was a special requirement to go to a specific prison (ie open prison, or high security) then the local one was chosen for visitation rights etc. Why punish the family in making it hard for them to visit etc?[/QUO



Inmates are normally located nearer their homes i.e midlands,south etc.At one time due to them being a control problem you could send them to the other end of the country as a form of punishment untill the dogooders came along.The best thing is they would still whine and whinge about it but not accept it was their own fault.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Nidge

There's a guy where I live who's always in trouble for one thing and another, the amount of time he's been sent to jail is a joke, when he's released he just goes back to what he did before because he knows that he'll be looked after on the inside, prisioners don't have to wait to see a doctor or dentist, they have the best dostors and nurses working for the prison service.

What annoys me is the people who say prisons dont work, because while this guy I know is on community service or any ither form of punishment that doesn't lock him up he continues to commit crimes.

The only way to stop people becoming victims from this sort of person is to lock them up and throw away the key.

There was a couple of thieves around here years ago that got the nickname 'Wet and Windy'. These guys got this name because they would only go out breaking into cars in the bad weather because they were less likely to be caught. The police took years to catch them, and when they did it was discovered they were not poor or feeding a drug habit in fact they both had reasonably good jobs.

I mention it because I don't believe that robbery is always because a person is poor or has a drug habit, often I believe it is motivated by jealousy.

[Osem]

Here's another view:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7366258.stm

Phone in about this on Radio 5 Live shortly if anyone's interested...

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Osem

Here's another view:

The funny thing is, in a laugh or cry sort of way, is that some of the prisoners in that prison mentioned were flight risks and had absconded from custody before, they were put there because of prison over crowding and still they wouldn't go

[Enuff]

I'm thinking of doing some time, at least i'd be well looked after inside!. it's harder to survive out here.

At least i'd be able to work, have 3 meals a day, a bed, shelter, company, TV and games, WARMTH!, exercise, no bills to pay, no problems getting medical treatment, education, education, education, free ciggys', drugs, and if ever I do get released, there'll be even more exclusive help waiting for me such as a nice big grant and other types of benefits.

That kind of life seems to be much better than what I have now.

Freedom isn't everything.

[BBKing]

Phone in about this on Radio 5 Live shortly if anyone's interested...

ROFL. That'll be fair, then, it's usually 90% the slopeheaded dregs of society on that show.

1) I've no idea why having TV should be seen as excessive luxury - the main point of it in jails is that it stops prisoners being bored and then violent. Sounds a cheap, effective solution to me. If you think otherwise, fine, where are you going to get the money and men to arrange and supervise something else?

2) Anyone would think the head of the prison officers had something to hide, like, oo, a report saying that the reason drugs are cheap and easy to find in jails is that they're smuggled in by corrupt prison officers protected by one of the last old-time unions out there. The one with Glyn Travis in a senior position, oddly enough. Part of the reason there are so many bent prison officers is that the union would strike if they were removed (and it would lead to massive stress on the remaining ones given the level of overcrowding). The POA have a serious hidden agenda here, which is to protect their members from criticism while putting the blame elsewhere. Here's another example:

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/news/crime/prison-service-corruption-rife-$446295.htm

and the report. Who are you going to believe, Lord Ramsbotham or the prison officers' union?
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/27883,...warders-supply

[Osem]

Originally Posted by BBKing

ROFL. That'll be fair, then, it's usually 90% the slopeheaded dregs of society on that show.

That's a hell of a sweeping generalisation from someone who normally objects to that sort of thing isn't it? What's it based on?

Originally Posted by BBKing

1) I've no idea why having TV should be seen as excessive luxury - the main point of it in jails is that it stops prisoners being bored and then violent. Sounds a cheap, effective solution to me. If you think otherwise, fine ..

Who are you asking that question of?

Originally Posted by BBKing

The POA have a serious hidden agenda here, which is to protect their members from criticism while putting the blame elsewhere.

That'd be what unions tend to do wouldn't it?

---------- Post added at 11:52 ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 ----------

Are prisons soft or hard? Well my personal view is that they're a damned sight harder for some people than for others and that fact should be better reflected in both the sentencing and the institutions.

[Chrysalis]

2 ex prisoners were on that daytime tv show on channel 5 where they talk about real life issues. There comments were life in prison was ok but its hard when you come out as society has no 2nd chances and as such its why many prisoners reoffend because it is so hard to get employed. Obviously I can imagine prison life can be tough for some, things like bullying will exist but on the face of it they not going to be run like prison camps, prisoners have to be controlled and the easiest way is with priviledges.

[BBKing]

Who are you asking that question of?

No one in particular, but there does seem to be a received opinion that having TV is somehow a luxury in 2008 and that there's no reason other than being too soft on prisoners why it might be a good idea in jails. I'm merely pointing out that there's more than one way to skin a cat.

[quote]That'd be what unions tend to do wouldn't it?/QUOTE]

The POA is particularly bad at it, since if, as a Government, you force them to strike (say by demanding that officers are all randomly searched and those smuggling drugs are instantly dismissed) you've really got a problem on your hands, so they have a good deal of hard power on tap when they feel like it. Mr. Travis' actual comments are along the lines of the old fashioned protection racket - 'you'd better give us the resources we want, or who knows what will happen or whose face will end up in the papers plastered over a story about prison riots'. They've been doing it for years and the Government know they have the power.

That kind of life seems to be much better than what I have now.

Freedom isn't everything.

Enuff, this is about the most enlightened comment on here. From David Wilson, an ex-prison governor, in the Guardian:

And while it is true that some prisoners do have access to computers, and TVs in their cells (when they are on the "enhanced regime" for good behaviour), I don't think that it is this that keeps the largely poor, illiterate, unemployed, mentally ill, drug-addicted prison population attached to their cells. Rather, it is the fact that prison has become the functioning alternative to the welfare state and, as such, the only institution in this country where, as a matter of right, you can get almost immediate access to a doctor, a dentist, a drugs counsellor, a teacher, advice about homelessness, help in applying for jobs, and where these rights are enforceable by the courts.

Prisons have become the last place in our society where what we used to call the "working class" - but who are now routinely dismissed as "chavs" - are given respect by those in authority because, as every good prison officer knows, you cannot run a jail without the support of the prisoners. Quite simply, there are never going to be enough prison officers to control a jail through sheer weight of numbers, and every jail therefore runs with the consent of those who are being locked up. If prisoners withdraw that consent to be governed - as they did during the lead-up to the riots at HMP Strangeways - then our prison system comes to a grinding, crashing, juddering halt.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/..._travesty.html

Which ought to put it to bed, but won't, of course.

---------- Post added at 15:44 ---------- Previous post was at 15:09 ----------

What's it based on?

Listening to the wretched programme for several years until my AM-only car radio mercifully died in late 2007. They had a standard modus operandi of looking at the Mail, Express or Sun front page story, then having a phone in on it with a provocative title. Today's Mail screams out about soft prisons, so that backs me up.

I'm not the only one who thinks this, either:

http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com...p-radio-5.html

I think I'm going to give up Radio 5
Why? Because it scares me. Because it endangers my mental health by inducing me to snarl and grrr at the babbling noisebox in my living room. Because it makes me feel fascism is coming soon. No, this is not the beginning of a counter-I Believe in the BBC campaign. It's not the reporting or the presenters or the guests - it's the public! I realised I must give it up this morning when I was desperately tempted to do the unthinkable and take part in a phone-in myself. The horror. Shuddering, I placed the spared mobile back on a table and took deep breaths. That way madness lay. I'd looked into the abyss and for a moment had thought - it wasn't that deep after all!

It's the classic counter-argument to the 'leftie liberal BBC' argument - the snarling loons who do get on actually turn moderate, intelligent people (like Alex in the above quote) off taking part, thus reinforcing the impression the the British public is completely bonkers still further.

Oh, and I've looked up the prisons budget, it's gone up 8% a year since 2001. See?

[Osem]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Listening to the wretched programme for several years until my AM-only car radio mercifully died in late 2007.

Oh right .... There's no arguing with your stats then

.....and the Daily Mail backs you up - they can't be all that bad then can they.....