How can we improve the country

[RazorSHarp]

Don't Doncaster Prison make their inmates go out and tidy the city up ?

I'm sure I saw somthing on Calendar about the inmates moaning about their bright orange overalls !

Any way I think the main reason they cannot use inmates as cheap labour is down to the European Parliament being red tpae, HSE ar4eholes and sasying that it is against the inmates human rights to be used for this type of work or against their wishes.

[Kthebean]

It would, if done correctly bring this country back to what we used to be, make them work for as little as possible, and then we could manufacture at little cost and export for a little less than the market value.

 

What about all the people who already work on farms or in quarries?

 

Their wages bound to go down if there is an influx of cheap cheap labour.

[Proximus]

what you havent taken into consideration is that a large percentage (not all) of the prison population live on the boundaries of society and often have little or no social skills. This makes it hard for them to interact with large groups and nigh on impossible to negotiate team work. You suggest chaining them together but can you imagine the chaos if a disagreement broke out and they all started fighting? Or what would happen if the chained together collective turned on the guards and made a collective bid for freedom?

 

Your idea does have some merit in an ordinary everyday world where everyone abides by the same social contract but unfortunately not many of the prison population live by those sort of rules.

 

So when do they learn? Should us freedom-having, law-abiding public not invest in them a little more? We assume that they have these social handicaps, shut them away for hours a day then after a few months/years just open the door and unleash them on society and society on them. Have you ever jumped into water and gone right down to the bottom before you've floated to the top, I guess that's somehow like the social path of someone recently released. If they don't have a support network around them they go in straight at the bottom.

 

My idea could be beneficial for us both. Some (not all) have no work ethic, no knowledge of the feeling of comradeship one feels having toiled for hours next to someone working equally as hard. Of course they could turn on those overseeing them, no different from how they do now locked inside. The only difference is that we've divided and can now conquer. Splitting up racial/locational/football/religious clans which are forming in our jails.

 

In terms of rehabilitation coming out of prison, working less that 12 hours a day and getting paid for it seems like a good deal compared to a 12 hour a day toil punctuated with basic meals provided in the prison system. Also if they go for a job they can present their potential employer with an exit reference detailing what work they did and how many hours they worked for their countries greater good and their own rehabilitation.

[Proximus]

[reactionary L00b]

 

It would solve the prison overcrowding problem: prisoner hot-bunking, one shift works while the other sleeps. Hey presto, you can double prisonner numbers: longer sentences can be passed, and no new prisons need to be built.

 

[/reactionary L00b]

 

Now this, I love. Also deters contraband weed/crack/hooch in your cell as some other bloke could well come in and consume/sell/steal the lot whilst you're out. You go back to being a prisoner within someone elses fort instead of building a fort within someone elses prison.

[Binster]

...a maverick Prison Warden who ran his prison with an iron fist, the inmates were bunked in tents outside (he was in Arizona so i'm not saying that this would work in our climate) and were forced to wear bright pink jump-suits. He had revolutionized the states approach to rehabilitation and re-offender rate, Decreased the contraband found within the prison and decreased violence within the prison. All it took was a little thinking outside the box.

 

It's a nice idea but creative thinking isn't what we allow in out ciminal justice system.

 

A couple of the comments above mention the criminal mentality, not being able to work in groups, not having social skills. This is true to an extent, but the fact is they do have the ability to work in groups and communicate to their social peers. Communicating on a credible level with ex-offenders is a skill I picked up years ago, and its hard work, believe me! But they appreciate it all the same because it's easier for me to adapt to them than them adapt to me.

 

That's where the problem lies. They find it difficult to do meaningful work because they find it difficult to adapt to our ways of working and communicating. If there were lots of manual labour that didn't need these skills, such as working down the pit, ship building, steel works, heavy manufacturing then they wouldn't be criminals in the first place as they would have gone into this line of work.

 

We can’t set them all to work because; simply there isn't that kind of work anymore. Locking them away, doing nothing at our expense is a difficult pill to swallow but it's the only sure-fire solution other than mass executions or rampant property crime and anti-social behaviour rates. A man in prison is a man not making babies that then have a high chance to become criminals later on.

[MrNM]

Our prisons are full of blokes who work out, eat, smoke and doss about all day.

 

And the women inmates???

[Mel's Mum]

So when do they learn? Should us freedom-having, law-abiding public not invest in them a little more? We assume that they have these social handicaps, shut them away for hours a day then after a few months/years just open the door and unleash them on society and society on them. Have you ever jumped into water and gone right down to the bottom before you've floated to the top, I guess that's somehow like the social path of someone recently released. If they don't have a support network around them they go in straight at the bottom.

 

That's exactly why most people re-offend soon after release

 

My idea could be beneficial for us both. Some (not all) have no work ethic, no knowledge of the feeling of comradeship one feels having toiled for hours next to someone working equally as hard. Of course they could turn on those overseeing them, no different from how they do now locked inside. The only difference is that we've divided and can now conquer. Splitting up racial/locational/football/religious clans which are forming in our jails.

 

In terms of rehabilitation coming out of prison, working less that 12 hours a day and getting paid for it seems like a good deal compared to a 12 hour a day toil punctuated with basic meals provided in the prison system. Also if they go for a job they can present their potential employer with an exit reference detailing what work they did and how many hours they worked for their countries greater good and their own rehabilitation.

 

I completely understand the theory behind your idea and, on the face of it, it does sound like a win-win situation. But there is an old saying that you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink and I just dont think the inmates would see it like we do at all. Career criminals tend to have an "instant gratification" attitude - if they cant have what they want when they want it, they tend to kick off because they dont have the same social on/off switch as the rest of society. In the ordinary everyday working world we all have moments when we have to bite our tongue or wear our public face to fit in but criminals dont tend to grasp this concept but tend to act first and think later.

[Proximus]

@Binster

 

With regards to Criminal Mentality; we're one of the most educated countries in the world, we, more than any other country out there, have the means to review each and every prisoner and ensure that mentally and physically they have the capacity to undertake the work we would have them do. I wouldn't have considered just turfing everyone out of the prisons and into work.

 

"It's a nice idea but creative thinking isn't what we allow in out ciminal justice system"

That may be what it requires so provide a solution to the ever worsening problem.

 

"They find it difficult to do meaningful work because they find it difficult to adapt to our ways of working and communicating"

So if we can't introduce them to it whilst incarcerated and within our control, what chance have we of doing it when they come out?

 

"We can’t set them all to work because; simply there isn't that kind of work anymore"

As I said previously we don't take manual labour jobs which could be done by the free population, we're looking at civil cosmetic work or work that is so poorly paid that no-one will do it

 

"A man in prison is a man not making babies that then have a high chance to become criminals later on"

But they don't stay in for long enough though do they?

[Mel's Mum]

That's where the problem lies. They find it difficult to do meaningful work because they find it difficult to adapt to our ways of working and communicating. If there were lots of manual labour that didn't need these skills, such as working down the pit, ship building, steel works, heavy manufacturing then they wouldn't be criminals in the first place as they would have gone into this line of work.

 

We can’t set them all to work because; simply there isn't that kind of work anymore. Locking them away, doing nothing at our expense is a difficult pill to swallow but it's the only sure-fire solution other than mass executions or rampant property crime and anti-social behaviour rates. A man in prison is a man not making babies that then have a high chance to become criminals later on.

 

everything I was trying to say but worded so much better than mine

[Proximus]

I completely understand the theory behind your idea and' date=' on the face of it, it does sound like a win-win situation. But there is an old saying that you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink and I just dont think the inmates would see it like we do at all. Career criminals tend to have an "instant gratification" attitude - if they cant have what they want when they want it, they tend to kick off because they dont have the same social on/off switch as the rest of society. In the ordinary everyday working world we all have moments when we have to bite our tongue or wear our public face to fit in but criminals dont tend to grasp this concept but tend to act first and think later.[/quote']

 

 

I wholly respect your point. I do believe though that prisoners aren't a different breed, they are just like you and I, they are humans, they can be influenced. They are a product of their environment. That's why some people go to prison good and come out bad, some go in bad and come out worse.

 

Once upon a time you got nothing when you went into prison, just iron bars and gruel and upon being sentenced, you knew what to expect. now you know you can get X,Y & Z so you expect X,Y & Z and kick off if you don't get it. We are in control of what a prisoner should expect so should we not manage their expectations whilst we can. The tail is wagging the dog in our current situation