This is total bull$hit
 

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/05/03/prison.tv.ap/index.html

Since when does a prisoner have access to more expensive technology than the vast majority of law-abiding citizens in this, the richest nation on earth???

Arghhhhhhhhh...... I believe prisoners should lead crap lives with no perks or entertainment. That's what deterrence is all about. I see crap like this, then I listen to stories about teachers (both of my parents and sister are teachers) having to spend their own salary on school supplies for their children.

It is bull. Plain and simple.

I had the same reaction as you Motion, when I first read the title of this article. Then, I read it, and it made sense:

1- The prisoners pay for those TVs, and making few dollars a day, it takes them quit a bit of work to afford the $300 flat screen TVs.

2- They take less space, nothing can be concealed inside.

So, the debate should rather be for or against TVs in jail. Flat screen or not is a non-issue.

Aurel

i think it is part of the rehabilitation process. i think the theory is that you want to treat them like regular human citizens so that they will act like them when they get back on the outside. no way, you can put them into a box and then expect them to get a job later. tuff call, i have a crap teevee, and it really pisses me off that they get the good stuff. short of taking them into the fields and shooting them, there really isnt much to do about it. just sit back and think of them, laying there in the dark worried about their cellmate's taste in men. it is nice on the outside.

Again, they have to earn the money to have those TVs. And not all of them are eligible for that. It gives them a goal: working 150 days at $2/day, saving that money for the TV and not spending it on drugs is a good rehabilitation exercise, IMHO. Unfixed is rigth: you can`t just put people in a black box and forget about them. On the long run, overpopulated jails will cost more than inmates who where able to rehabilitate themsleves while working to get a TV.

Aurel

Last time I checked, the unemployment rate is around 5% in this country. I do not believe prisoners should make money in prison, even if its a buck a day. We all know that prisoners are rarely rehabilitated... most end up right back in jail, leeching another $100,000 a year from us taxpayers. Deterrence should be the name of the game. 2 strikes-your-out sounds about right to me.

I started to wonder reading this thread if a declining level of punishment would be appropriate in prison. The first year would allow no privileges no matter what. With good behavior and completion of skills training (don't ask me what, I'm still thinking), the prisoner moves up and continues to do so as he/she approachs release. A half way house is on these lines as a way to reintroduce prisoners to life outside.

Richard, I agree with you and have little compassion for criminals, but I think the failure rate is largely based on how prisons don't work.

Why not do the reverse I've always said - good behavior should be expected at a minimum. Every time a prisoner violates a rule ADD time on to their hotel stay. If you're good, we'll let you out when we said we would. Instead, we say if you're good, we'll reward you for doing what you're supposed to be doing anyway.

When a prisoner leaves prison, they should be given a nice fat bill for the money they OWE, let them work the rest of their lives to pay it off.

Don't waste my tax payer money on flat screen TVS for prisoners, that's BS!
and the "money they earn", where do you think that comes from? tax dollars!

You're damn right, on-ramp. Good point. I'm sick of these bloated socialist programs. A possible prison sentence should put the FEAR OF GOD into a potential felon. That's the only way to keep these people out of the system. I think Zeke, Cegerer, Aurel and Unfixed are just too liberal... waiting for Denis to chime in here, too :)

I've been meaning to tell you.. your sig is the best I've seen! Where did it come from?

Prison should be hell with flourescent lighting.

you mean the "LOL dork" one? i found that animated gif on some website and thought it was funny so i put it up.

No, the scratch, scratch poem.

From "Black Leather", a GNR (Guns N Roses) song, from the CD "The Spaghetti Incident?"

Welcome to the new people's republic of Orygun...those in power are leftist...I mean far leftist, bozos. My wife was born here, I'm a newcomer, arriving in 1947. We're talking of leaving...but not to California...;)

This will be a shock coming from me I'm sure. I totally agree that prison should suck the big one. TBS, I think we have too many nonviolent people in prison. It's like that movie Blow, "I went in with a bachelors in Marijuana and left with a doctorate in cocain." Take non violent criminals and make them work ass loads of community service and pay terrible fines. The way we do it, they cost US more money year after year. Prison should be for separating people from society whom we cannot trust, not rehab. Make the non violents pay for their own rehab on the outside. You sell dope, you spend the next 3 years worth of weekends cleaning the *****ters at grand central station.

Yikes!! For a moment there, I thought this was going to be another "Kill the Moderator" thread. It's only about the injustice in our country regarding prisoners getting better perks than those who earn a decent living. SHEW.

Ok then, as you were....
-Z-man.

PS: Motion: I do agree with your opinon on this: this is ludicrous! What ever happened to prison being a form of punishment?

let's just kill off this generation since there's no hope, take the money we save on prisons, and put it into the education system to try and keep the next generation *out* of them in the first place.


oh yeah...and kill the moderator...can't be too careful

I'm not necessarily liberal. It is costing way too much to house prisoners whether they make money or not. And the system is a total failure, that we can all agree on.

I was just doing some reading on business systems theory and earlier had a thought. The state prison in NV has a well known auto resto shop. Some of the lifers are doing some nice work and contributing with no hope of ever seeing the outside. Why? Well, purpose, I guess.

Many will never have a purpose. They are probably 'throw away' people. Now a real liberal would take exception to that. The task at hand is to sort out the ones that have a chance, but I wouldn't want that job. Thing is, nobody else does either.

Violent criminals are a tough lot to deal with and they way we do deal with them essentially makes them into animals, if they aren't already. So, are we talking about prisoners with some redemption, or animals?

The system is broken, never worked, probably never will. But to be vested in the system is to be interested enough to try. All I was thinking, thinking mind you, was that levels of accomplishment might be some kind of alternative.

For the ones whose life on the inside is better than the outside, you just have to wonder. And why would we let them rejoin the same environment that put them in prison to start with?

Furthering the discussion, I know Martha is not going to do hard time. She will most probably do some time, country club time. For her, it will be interminable. For the innercity gangbanger, it would not be the least bit appropriate. Or would it? Think about it. How would each of these individuals respond to a completely different environment? The same misguided attention getting needs might be served by another means. Drop these people back in the same place where they were desparate for attention and they will get it any way they can and know how to. Exposure to something else might turn on a light.

I don't have a lot of hope and hell with flourescent lights is about right. But, the contiuned association with negatives is not going to produce anything but an angry monster. A severe life of restraint with some positives to reach for could put some of these people back in society. Just not where they started out.

Just thougts, gentlemen, just thoughts.

"It's been 6 months since my last congugal visit, and I'm a free man!"
--Michael Bolton