Should we make prisions hard work?

Question

Some answered my previous question with a great reply; "If they cant do the time - dont do the crime"
meaning, prisioners should be provided with basic facilities (ie. no television, pot plants, etc), basic food, bread, water! Not making a prision a holiday camp can surely only be beneficial to the deterrent of criminals contemplating committing a crime?
Also prisioners should serve the whole sentence issued to them by the court of law, no time off for good behaviour!

bumbleboi, if a prisioner blames society for their time in prison than they are not rehabilitated! If they then re comit, then they know where they would end up, wouldn't they! Why side with the offender?????

Answer 1

Tried working in a jail. Even with TV and such it is no picnic in the park. Also, remember that you are gonna meet these folks when they get out some day. Do you really want some guy that had nothing to do, going stircrazy and doing exercise to come live near you?

Answer 2

Any time a question like this comes up people go right ahead and talk about prison being a holiday camp - somebody mentioned a 5 star hotel. People must really believe all they see in the papers about how 'good' things are in prison but it's far from it.

I've been there and I bet most people here wouldn't find it a holiday camp. From the time you're handcuffed and loaded up in a sweatbox you lose all control over your life. You're told when to sleep, when to eat, when you can excercise, what to wear etc. etc. Anything else you get only if you behave - including visits, phonecalls, money for treats such as sweets, drinks, smokes etc.

People read your letters, you are away from the people you care about, you can be locked up in what really is not more than a cage for at least 16 hours a day if not more. You may end up sharing your pad with someone who you don't get on with. Where I was we had no toilets in the cell - so had to slop out - literally piss in a pot and everybody empties them together in the morning.

The only reason people have 'privileges' is that tehre would be much more trouble in prison if they didn't. The guards prefer people having TVs, music etc. so that they stay in line. Any trouble and these privileges and others like visits, canteen money, excercise, association, smoking etc. can be taken away.

I would have preferred to be working rather than stuck in a cell most of the day but there isn't enough work to go around for everyone. People who complain that prisoners should be working could very well be the same people who would be giving out if we ended up working close to where you live. Not everybody in prison is a murderer or rapist.

If prison is so easy why do people end up getting assaulted or even killed in prisons and you hear about prison suicides. Despite what some people say it isn't easy in there and it's not a cushy place to be.

I knew what I did was wrong and it was my fault that I ended up there but the thought of prison would have been enough to make me cop out. I did the crime and had to do the time as the saying goes but if I was kept more like an animal than I was - fed only bread and water and put on a chain gang as somebody suggested - I know I would have come out much angrier than I did. We don't have to go back into prehistoric times.

The biggest problem of prison is what happens afterwards. Once a crim - always a crim some people think and it can be very hard to get a job - even one that doesn't pay well. Alot of people in prison have other problem stoo - drugs, mental health etc. and when they are released can end up just falling back in their old ways. Helping these people when they are released would cut down on the numbers going back to prison.

Answer 3

I think they should bring back capital punishment for certain crimes,such a murder child rape and drug dealers, terriorists, or anyone who has even injured one of our Police force.Just get rid, their scum,we can do without them.As for other crimes,yes,I do think that hard work punishments would be more justified and would make these people think twice about doing the crime again.Trouble is there are so many stupid do gooders in this country,who think these people can be re-habilitated -WRONG-these people are living a life of luxury,sometimes living much better than before they went into prison,They are like a 5 star hotel.It's disgusting.Especially when it comes to terriorists and foreigners who commit crimes in this country,hang them or deport them.I for one don't want to keep any of this scum.It's a total disgrace.Yes, I'm and eye for an eye person.I know there have been mistakes made in the days gone by ,and that of course is terrible.But with DNA now,there is very little chance of that happening again.So yes,they should serve the full sentence,life should mean life or give them a choice,they could have the death sentence instead. I think this would definitely make people think twice before committing crimes.I for one could have no sleepless nights in pulling the lever on a child abuser,murderer would you?
Also think of the money we could save,if they were on bread and water like in Spain,they are only given bread and water there,their relatives have to bring anything else into the prison for them,if they don't they don't get anything else.Basic meals,basic cells,no entertainment,no perks.People who have been murdered by these people will never enjoy anything ever again why should the criminals.
Spend the money on worthwhile things like pensioners, rape crisis centres,childline and such.We would have a better society altogether then to live in.

Answer 4

The best way to treat prisoners in jails is to put the clock back 50 years - so what did we all do to pass the time away 50 years ago? Well it wasn't watching TV or playing Bingo. But we did read a lot, grew our own vegetables and flowers, learnt how to keep our homes clean and fresh [without spending a fortune at B&Q and getting into 'house fashion']

Prisoners need to learn the straight and narrow by example, so we need the right characters to look after them. We need to give prisoners an opportunity have their natural aptitudes and abilities identified and show them how to develop them.

There is a great deal of talent out in the criminal community and it needs channeling into something legal and productive that will give them the chance to experience achievement - probably for the first time in their lives.

They are good planners and organisers - for starters!

Answer 5

I agree that the prison system is too easy on criminals. I have heard of some of them saying that they would rather be in prison with as they say 3 hots and a cot, then out in the world working to take care of themselves some of their no good a**es even have cable which is a luxury that not every working American can afford. I am glad that they stopped giving them free educations because there are children out here that have hard working parents who can't afford to send them to college after they work hard to get good grades with the hope of going to g\college. If the prisons system were more like boot camps than summer camps maybe there wouldn't be so much crime here. I say send their a**es over to fight the war and send the other innocent law abiding men and women home.

Answer 6

The prison population has really exploded in the U.S. Whatever is going on now, it's not working. Problem is, most people don't think about the consequences before they commit the crime, so extra punishment in prison isn't much of a deterrant.

I do think prisoners should have to work, and work hard. Ideally, they would be able to learn a couple of basic job skills that might help them when they get out.

Answer 7

Check out the tent jail in AZ. Sounded like a good deterrent to me not to break the law there...jail should be punishment. Not a good time for all. But we should take it to another level. How about teaching the inmates how to read and making them go to school as well as work and learn a trade and take the TV away except for weekends and only show educational programing? How about limiting the number of appeals a death row inmate has so that they don't linger on the row for a lifetime? How about sentences that actually fit the crime committed? Things to think about....

Answer 8

Damn right! There are too many prisoners getting cushy treatment, they are there to suffer for their crimes, not get mothered! I've often thought that,since our prisons are overcrowded, maybe those serving time for lesser crimes (theft and so on) could be transferred to a third world country, where under the supervision of that countrys prison regime, they could be put to work digging wells and sewers and so on. Definitely not a cushy time, and it would stop them from sitting in a cell for most of the time, and getting addicted to drugs, which seems to be a problem in our prisons. Paedophiles, murderers, rapists and drug dealers should be locked up for an indefinite period. There's too much of all this PC,oh criminals have rights too nonsense. CRAP. If you break the law, you have no rights.

Answer 9

Prison, of any degree of severity has never been a deterrent. It just doesn't work no matter how tough it is. This is because criminals don't believe they will get caught when they do the crime. So, logically, it is no deterrent at all.

So, what we are discussing here is punishment. The worst possible punishment for most criminals is to send them back to school. Make them learn to read and write, operate a bank account, gain job-finding skills, lots of poetry, and they have to learn all their times tables by heart.

Watch crime fall by 90% overnight!

Answer 10

I believe we should make it very hard for prisoners in jail. I'm sorry, but there are just too many repeat offenders. Other countries have lower crime due to the conditions of their jails. There should be no reason for anyone to be able to have priveledges in prison. I also think that someone who has killed more than once should be put to death. There is not proof that people who have killed that many times has ever been rehabilitated. Make it tougher for these criminals when they are "punished" and you will see less crime. I'm sorry, but this country is just too lax on people who break the laws.

Answer 11

Prisons used to be ran the way you wish for, and all sentences are options,to encourage good behavior, other wise if what you wanted was implemented, you would have one Riot after another- they would burn down the prisons, and we would be stuck with more and more bills to rebuild them.

Only Violent Criminals should be sent to Prison, others should be sent to Camps, built at Land Fills and Garbage dumps to do Sorting of Re cycle goods- they can earn money for the system that way- and we should eliminate many laws- no one should go to jail for possession of less than a pound of Pot, or a small amount of Cocaine- hell it was all legal before 1934. We had a great country then ,didn't we.