Prison is too easy and isn't working

[kimba]

Given the voting in prisons ruling it would suggest that even in prison your entitled to human rights.

 

My comment was about the human rights act being used in ways, and by people, we did not envisage it would be used by.

 

Some of the stupid rulings that have come from the human rights act has made me firmly against it, as I consider it to have been made a mockery of.

[iansheff]

As this Government is hell bent on getting people who milk the benefit system into work (as they should) then it is only right that prisoners should have to work to contribute to their upkeep.

[Bassman62]

I agree there are huge benefits to working while in prison. My point is that prison labour isn't free market labour, and it is unfair to compete against it. If you have 100 people who must work for nothing more than their meals, then that is unfair to people who aren't criminals who are trying to earn a living. The prison labour of America is terribly unjust, always has been.

My bold= But they wouldn't be working for just that, they'd be working for the upkeep of the prison including the cost of the staff which at present comes out of out taxes.

How much does it cost per week to kepp a prisoner in prison?

[Chris_Sleeps]

slavery is making a free man work

Slavery is the ownership of a person, or a person's labour. Some people consider tax a form of slavery.

 

I've referenced this article on Prison Labour before:[Link]

 

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

 

Prison labour makes locking people up a financial issue, instead of a judicial issue. If there is profit in locking a man up and forcing him to work then I believe that isn't good for society.

[max]

According to this report from 2007 the average IQ of prisoners in the UK was 87 and there were over 6,000 with an IQ below 70. To me, it would make far more sense to educate our prison population in order that they may be able to find gainful employment on their release. Locking them up for 24 hours a day and feeding them cold gruel would simply ensure that on release they would be re-offending in a short time.

[Quinnwok]

i think the current prison system is far too easy for the criminals it houses. they can eat hot meals, get a hot shower and even have luxuries, all for being a criminal! it should be bread, rice and water for the lazy, a cold shower once a week and total lock down. the ones that earn their keep can work, and i mean WORK HARD for the luxury of having a hot meal/ hot shower, just like the rest of society does. they then should choose to work even harder (just like me and you) to have the luxury of a TV or radio. make prison a horrible horrible place rather than the hotel it is now. you dont work , you dont eat. Simple really. earn your keep. make it a place you really dont want to be as well as the same time the prisoners would be contributing through hard work to the cost of housing them cutting £££££ off the bill that the tax payers pay.

 

I do not understand why when in jail they cannot be locked up 23 hours a day. One hour a day exercise, one book per week to read. Three simple meals a day, served in the cell.

 

Noway would that cost £3000 a week!

[Quinnwok]

According to this report from 2007 the average IQ of prisoners in the UK was 87 and there were over 6,000 with an IQ below 70. To me, it would make far more sense to educate our prison population in order that they may be able to find gainful employment on their release. Locking them up for 24 hours a day and feeding them cold gruel would simply ensure that on release they would be re-offending in a short time.

 

They are never going to change.

[kimba]

Slavery is the ownership of a person, or a person's labour. Some people consider tax a form of slavery.

 

I've referenced this article on Prison Labour before:[Link]

 

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

 

Prison labour makes locking people up a financial issue, instead of a judicial issue. If there is profit in locking a man up and forcing him to work then I believe that isn't good for society.

Now that's a good point what you make but what I am talking about is this...

 

We give prisoners basic rations to accommodate their human rights, that's one meal and basic drink, roof over the head and basics by way of bed and bedding towel, and hour exercise yard use and uniform ect.

Anyone wanting access to a tv, there own clothes, tea coffee, more hours exercise, access to the gym, quilts, education and all the other things that have added costs outside of the what could be considered basic human rights, then they would be offered the opportunity to do real work for those things. It should be offered as a privilege to work your way into a better life while in prison and then hopefully the line of thinking will carry on when they are released and become model citizens.

 

At the moment its give them what they want to keep the peace, at the expense of tax payers. If the majority worked then it would be far easier to quash and dissent in prisons by those not wanting to participate in the work programs because they would be in a minority with the worker not wanting to loose what they had worked for.

Ask anyone that has ever been burgled what they think at the time and they will tell you that they feel cheated out of something they have grafted for, so give people in prisons some self worth and they won't want to loose it to kick off for those not willing to accept that you earn your privileges or live a basic sentence.

 

Having been in Armley some years back where it was 11 hour bang up, with slop out and 4 to a cell, and then doing some time years later in Doncertraz where we had menu's and tv and everything for nothing, I can tell you this, if you had gone to Armley and asked anyone there if they would have worked for the life style that Doncatraz gave for nothing Im sure 90% would have opted to work.

Prison has got easier depending on where you are. Some have game consoles and all sorts of stuff now and Im not sure what part of human rights that lot would come under.

[GrapeApe]

i think the current prison system is far too easy for the criminals it houses. they can eat hot meals, get a hot shower and even have luxuries, all for being a criminal! it should be bread, rice and water for the lazy, a cold shower once a week and total lock down. the ones that earn their keep can work, and i mean WORK HARD for the luxury of having a hot meal/ hot shower, just like the rest of society does. they then should choose to work even harder (just like me and you) to have the luxury of a TV or radio. make prison a horrible horrible place rather than the hotel it is now. you dont work , you dont eat. Simple really. earn your keep. make it a place you really dont want to be as well as the same time the prisoners would be contributing through hard work to the cost of housing them cutting £££££ off the bill that the tax payers pay.

 

Guff. I would be terrified of going to prison regardless of what it was like. Its the horror of being separated from my loved ones and losing control of every aspect of my daily life that makes it a horrendous prospect. That would never ever be "easy" as you glibly claim.

 

Making conditions worse would have absolutely no purpose whatsoever execpt to make prisoners harder to manage.

 

Prisons should offer prisoners the chance to educate or train themselves to give some an opportunity to break out of the crime cycle that many find themselves in. Treating them as you suggest would just turn out people angry with the system and with no prospect of getting into work or other meaningful occupation....and who would be more likely to re-offend.

[kimba]

I do not understand why when in jail they cannot be locked up 23 hours a day. One hour a day exercise, one book per week to read. Three simple meals a day, served in the cell.

 

Noway would that cost £3000 a week!

Thats how it was in Armley, Hull and Lincoln nick when I was in them. And some times due to staffing issues or someone spitting the dummy out you didnt even get to walk the exercise yard and the only time out of the cell was to empty your bucket and get your meals (which were cr4p I may add)