What do you think about prison?

markjs

markjs

Banned
Is prison a good thing?

Should prisons offer education?

Should violent offenders be locked up alongside non-violent ones?

Should drug offenses be treated as crime or as a health issue?

Personally I think we need prisons, but I beleive they are really only necassary for violent offenders. I believe we should never lock up violent offenders with non violent ones. The prisons should offer education and vocational training but they should aso find any means opossible to be self supporting. I think we should find more creative penalties for nonviolent offenders. Basically I think this nation (United States) needs a complete overhaul of the prison system. I was just interested in other's opinions.
 
Should they offer education if they can make it self supporting? IE vocational programs run as a bussiness?
 
I think education is important...to people that actually have a chance at parole.
Death-row, and lifers...I see no need to even try to make them any smarter.

I do think it would be better to separate inmates according to their crime.

I think standalone drug offenses should be treated as a crime, but there should
also be education there along with drug treatments, A dry addict/alcoholic,
is not much better than a practicing one. (addicts, and alcoholics need the tools to help stay straight)
Now violent crime and drug mixes is different. (a tough call on that)
 
Is prison a good thing?
Without prisons, there is no contrete punishment. The only other ways to punish criminals would be monetarily or corporally. Monetary punishment only works if the person has the cash to pay for the crime...but opens up doors to 'paying for the privalege of doing crime'. Corporal punishment woudl be interesting. Public floggings for crimes like rape, or child molestation etc... we could even televise it and make some money to go towards running the jails. :D


Should prisons offer education?

It's perhaps the only tried and true method of stopping repeat customers. Many blue-collar criminals don't have the skills to make enough money to avoid having to steal and make ends meet. Many have not had the opportunity to even try. If you educate/give skills to criminals and therefore allow them to get a job after jail...they're less likely to repeat. As for white-collar criminals...education isn't gonna cut it. Match up jail-time with a fine and the loss of certification. Bye-Bye BScience. Hosta la vista Doctorate!

Should violent offenders be locked up alongside non-violent ones?
They already have levels of security which tends to do a good job of seperating convicts...but then again, someone inside for fraud might be a violent person without being a violent offender...you only find out after the first incident.

Should drug offenses be treated as crime or as a health issue?
Depends on which part of the equation you were at. If you were a user... manditory rehab and a 3-5year mandatory NA (Narcotics Anonymous) follow-up would do it. If you were a seller/pusher, you deserve jail-time. It's not a health-issue at that point.
 
MrBishop said:
Corporal punishment woudl be interesting. Public floggings for crimes like rape, or child molestation etc... we could even televise it and make some money to go towards running the jails. :D
Click to expand...
Remember Michael Fay?
 
I think crimes like thievery should be dealt with by putting the thief in a work release facility and making them pay the debt with community service.
 
Is prison a good thing?
Yes.

Should prisons offer education?
Yes. As already stated, in so many words, education is good.

Should violent offenders be locked up alongside non-violent ones?
Not ideally, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Should drug offenses be treated as crime or as a health issue?
I rather agree with Bish on this one.


___________________________

Should inmates be allowed personal belongings in prison cells?
No.

I watched a very interested program on ... History Channel, I think. It featured the Pelican Bay Prison System in California. It's amazing what's entailed in running a state prison. The violent outbreaks and just bad things in general. That many 'bad' people locked up together can make for some very high tension both for the inmates and the staff. There's over 1,400 staff for this one prison alone.

As I watched the program, they showed a late-night raid inspection on the inmates. The guards very carefully plan a raid, sneak in quietly, then converge on the cells so that each cell has an armed guard standing in front of it when the lights flip on. The inmates are required to dress in their white shirts and shorts, be handcuffed, then filed into separate holding cells where they will be for the next few hours while the raid progresses.

Then the guards search each and every cell, thoroughly. But here's my question - why the need for such intensive searches? If all they are allowed is state-issued white shirts, shorts, pants, etc., bedding, and a book or two there'd be less need for searches. It's prison and they practically have dorm rooms (many of them were just as messy as my dorm was, anyway, that much junk and stuff in it).

Also, when they are allowed out in the general population outside area, they were allowed to wear their own clothing. Not their issued whities. I thought this was very odd. Especially for all the outbreaks of violence they showed. I don't think wearing the same clothing will stop everything, but I'm sure it wont' hurt.
 
Is prison a good thing?

In theory...yes. As practiced...no. Once you enter prison, especially for a violent offense, you should lose your rights as a citizen for as long as you remain in your sentence

Should prisons offer education?

Depends on whether you intend to guarantee the prisoner a job after his sentence is served. If you can't do that, you're just setting the person up for disappointment, and low-paying jobs for the rest of their life. In most cases, even though it's illegal, corporations will keep ex-convicts from getting high-paying jobs...if they can't avoid hiring them in the first place...

Should violent offenders be locked up alongside non-violent ones?

Should drug offenses be treated as crime or as a health issue?

Buying, or selling? There is a distince difference. Selling illegal narcotic substances to an addict can even be a death sentence for the addict...why not make it a death sentence for the seller?

As for buying...it should be treated as both a crime, and a health issue. A crime because the drugs are illegal, and a health issue because said offender has given him/herself a substance that can cause severe problems with their bodies.
 
Is prison a good thing?
Prison is a bad thing, but a much needed institution. The system needs to be overhauled.

Should prisons offer education?
They all should offer some level depending on the inmate population and security level. It helps to reduce tensions of the inmates and may prepare some to re-integrate better with society.

Should violent offenders be locked up alongside non-violent ones?
No. Some prisons need to have a lower level of security, more of a Delancey Street approach. Screw up and its off to higher level of incarceration. Higher the level, the less human the inmates become. Let the inmates choices of behavior that determines their level.

Should drug offenses be treated as crime or as a health issue?
Dealers, transport and manufacturing are criminals and should be treated as such. User deserve a single shot at recovery, again in a Delancey Street approach.


Delancey Street is a second chance at life for those who blew the first shot. The best part it is not funded by the tax-payer.

The funding comes from people that purchase the products and services offered by the conglomerate that is Delancey Street.

delancyat30.jpg

Delancey Street

(Prison have become a racket, just ask Gray Davis/whacken-hut.)
 
Gato_Solo said:
Is prison a good thing?

... Once you enter prison, especially for a violent offense, you should lose your rights as a citizen for as long as you remain in your sentence
Click to expand...



I agree.
 
As soon as you are convicted of a felony you lose your right to vote and bear arms. If you mean they should lose thir right to protections against crimes commited in the prison you are dead wrong. That would aso constitute cruel and unusual punishment as defined by the constitution.

Oh wait I forgot, a small handful of people on this board wants to rewrite that document.
 
ResearchMonkey said:
Delancey Street is a second chance at life for those who blew the first shot. The best part it is not funded by the tax-payer.

The funding comes from people that purchase the products and services offered by the conglomerate that is Delancey Street.

delancyat30.jpg

Delancey Street

(Prison have become a racket, just ask Gray Davis/whacken-hut.)
Click to expand...


Delancey Street is an excellent program shown to virtually emiminate most recidivism. It ought to be the model American prison, instead of supermaxx. Supermaxx has a place but it should only be for violent lifers.
 
markjs said:
As soon as you are convicted of a felony you lose your right to vote and bear arms. If you mean they should lose thir right to protections against crimes commited in the prison you are dead wrong. That would aso constitute cruel and unusual punishment as defined by the constitution.

Oh wait I forgot, much of this board wants to rewrite that document.
Click to expand...

So are you trying to pick a fight or something, with that statement, or what.
I don't think you even know the "majority" of the people on this board.
I think you are showing some ignorant thought there. :confused:
 
I didn't say majority. I said much and "much" is probably inaccorate so let me amend it to a "small handful".
 
markjs said:
As soon as you are convicted of a felony you lose your right to vote and bear arms. If you mean they should lose thir right to protections against crimes commited in the prison you are dead wrong. That would aso constitute cruel and unusual punishment as defined by the constitution.

Oh wait I forgot, much of this board wants to rewrite that document.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? Cruel and unusual punishment is what punishment is all about anyway...I'll explain before you burst a blood vessel...

1. Jail/Prison in, and of, itself can be considered cruel. You're depriving a human being their freedom. How much more cruel can you get? I'm talking rights such as free speech. Freedom of the press. Freedom of assembly. The entire bill of rights. I don't condone physical or mental torture, but I do condone harsh living conditions. A/C, TV, movies, physical conditioning (gym), et al, should be denied. The only physical conditioning a prisoner should get is making big rocks into little rocks. Put them to work on road projects...or...since that would take away someones livlihood...have them pick up trash along the highways. If they're tired from work, you won't have too much trouble out of them in their 'free' time. For that, they can get their education. Can't read? Mandatory reading classes. Can't write? Mandatory writing classes. Can't do simple math? Mandatory math classes. Get them their GED, gaet them a job upon completion of their sentence, and get them away from the life that led to prison. Make prison a place they don't want to go back to, period. That is what I meant when I said lose all rights. The only people they should have contact with outside are family, and their attorney.
 
That's your opinion Gato and it's got some validity, but I know more than one person that think it's wonderful that rape, assault, and murder is something you face in prison. To allow that is cruel and unusual, but it happens every day. This is the right I stand for, even violent criminals deserve protection from that if at all possible. The violence has to stop somewhere.....If we can stop it>
 
markjs said:
That's your opinion Gato and it's got some validity, but I know more than one person that think it's wonderful that rape, assault, and murder is something you face in prison. To allow that is cruel and unusual, but it happens every day. This is the right I stand for, even violent criminals deserve protection from that if at all possible. The violence has to stop somewhere.....If we can stop it>
Click to expand...


There's a difference between revenge and justice. What you have to find, is the line between them. :shrug: Stands to reason that, a man, or woman, who swings a 5-pound sledge for 10 hours a day (rest periods and meals breaks) is not going to have the energy to do much except sit and read/study. If you find that some prisoners do have the excess energy, you can either give them a heavier hammer, or lengthen their work hours. Their choice.
 
markjs said:
Delancey Street is an excellent program shown to virtually emiminate most recidivism. It ought to be the model American prison, instead of supermaxx. Supermaxx has a place but it should only be for violent lifers.
Click to expand...

Now see you have jumped the gun. You saw something and made a statement that is simply unrealistic. "If it feels good, do it"

The reality of the situation is that you can't make this the 'status quo' because it there is very little legal wiggle room in the over-legislated jurisprudence system and penal codes.

Liberals have always demanded judicial intervention in the name of 'rights' and "injustice", "the cause". Well as it turns out those are the same laws that have stripped the wiggle room needed to make this primary model of rehabilitation. Delancey Street was an experiment from the private sector, it is not a government institution. Another proven example that the people can do better at something than government legislators.

You have to earn your way to Delancey Street in the first place. It is a place for those that choose to make a better life for themselves. Those that try to use it as a hustle to lower their down-time get whisked away back to prison.

This system is broken from too much fixing.
 
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