Prison Rights

[Diva]

It seems to me that prisoners of today often get more 'rights' than some of the law abiding citizens. They have access to computers, library ;) , porn, and more frivolous law-suits than you can shake a stick at. They sue for everything from food choices to the right to receive gay porn. One such case was discussed on our now imfamous pedophile thread about Serial killer Dennis Nilsen. He is suing for the right to receive gay porn magazines [which oddly enough are banned while heterosexual ones are not]. The twist? Well, as usual... Amuarote states it best:

Amuarote: pornography was by all accounts a necessary part of Nilsen's murder ritual - an active stimulus and a prelude.

In some countries they can even vote. What are your opinions on the rights of convicted criminals? What is too much? And/or what is too little?

[Amaurote]

I'm in complete accord with you on this, with the caveat that prisons here in the UK aren't officially known as correctional facilities, though the local prison system roughly mirrors that prevailing in US jails. I'm slightly surprised to learn that Australian prisons are known as correctional facilities, and I'd be interested to hear more from Aussie about their divergence from the UK model.

Rehabilitational priorities have dominated the prison systems of the Western world ever since the early 1950s; the idea of using prisons as human warehouses or containment areas is still prevalent in some parts of the UK service, but even the most hardened opponents of rehabilitational programmes would admit that the punitive notion of prisons - double election theory, as it were, deterrent and punishment working in tandem; "Prison Works" - is an even bigger failure. Rehabilitation works; but the way it works is has nothing to do with the imposition of "correct" values and the extirpation of "criminal" alternatives, and everything to do with extending choice. Rehabilitation isn't about ridding ourselves of evil and replacing it with good; that notion is theological, and has nothing whatsoever to with correctional aims. Rehabilitation is about raising awareness and supplying information to the inmate so that he or she can make informed moral and social decisions.

The one thing I learned from my MA thesis into the rehabilitational use of prison libraries was that rehabilitation means different things to different people: in some quarters it's regarded with complete abhorrence, as a sort of Trojan Horse for gimmicky treatments and failed sociological panaceas. There's some debate over the "fairness" of the concept, in fact: criminality is the product of a complex series of criminogenic factors, in which the behaviour of the individual committing the crime is merely one facet. Poverty, criminal subculture and drug addiction are major catalysts: in that sense, "rehabilitating" the criminal in isolation before readmitting him to a society riddled with poverty, criminality and narcotic traffic isn't particularly helpful, or, indeed, sincere.

Aussie made a critically important point when he referred to the cruelty of the prison environment: when people speak of "hardened criminals", as Daniel Defoe and the 18th C courts used to refer to "old offenders", they're referring to people who have been hardened by the criminal subculture of the prison. Prison acts as a "deep freeze"; it shuts men and women off from sexual, aesthetic and moral stimuli, and introduces them to new, more fervid criminal subcultures in which co-operation with prison authorities is seen as a form of weakness, or even perfidy.

In this context, the role of rehabilitation is not to take criminals and turn them into saints, but rather to rehabilitate the inmate from the effects of prison itself, and thereby facilitate his or her re-entry into society. The best rehabilitational programmes are informational programmes: they suggest ways forward, provide advice, information and chemical treatments; they leave the inmate with his moral autonomy and self-respect intact. I care about the spiritual dimension of the inmate as much as any man; but I have no moral right to presuppose that I would have acted any differently to the inmate if I had been in his or her position. Rehabilitation is a pragmatic policy; theology has its own merits, but it has no relevance to the issue, insofar as criminality is not necessarily synonymous with turpitude or moral transgression.

As for literature: aesthetic pleasure may not make ameliorate everyone's moral sensibilities, but it acts as an essential safety valve in an environment which is beset by stress, frustration, and the struggle for mana. A prison without a library is as vulnerable to insurrection as the Bastille was in 1789. Think about it.

prison...oh my. definitely a favorite topic of mine. i'll say now that i didn't read any responses 'cause i got the ultimate one right here:

fuck prisoners. let 'em do as they please. give 'em their own little island in the middle of nowhere where they can't get out. let 'em serve themselves and figure out how to save and protect their own asses. and should they go bad, they'll make people more scared to enter 'em. as far as i'm concerned prison should be bad. REAL bad. SO BAD you do NOT EVER WANT TO GO BACK. it should be emotionally...fuck it, you should be mentally fucked up after one year. so much so that you could NEVER enter society 'cause you're just plain insane. no one should be able to spend their life in prison. that's like saying, "hey, you REALLY fucked up. so for punishment we're gonna send you to a kinda bad place where if you don't fuck up real bad, life ain't so bad."

No NO my son. prison should be so fucked up you are traumatized for life. you should fear the law and police for the rest of your days. you should blah blah blah blee blee blee...you get the point. i'm tired.

[Diva]

RudeDawg, while I agree that it should have a lasting memory as a deterrent, I also feel that prison should be productive in rehabilitation. There are people who stole because they were hungry, or peer pressure, or they had no sense of right or wrong. Work them... hard. Give them the oportunity of learning a skill. Education. Fill almost everyday so that they literally drop into their cells. Then leave one or two days where they sit and have to reflect on the fact that their rights have been taken and why. So that they appreciate the days when they are able to get out. Once their time is up they are able to re-enter society and become a part of it.

That being said: There are prisoners who are lifers. They are the repeat offenders. The violent offenders. Rape, murder, molestation. If we are to sentence them to life, instead of capital punishment, then it is our duty not to be as cruel and as inhumane as they are. But I do believe they should get hard labor and education on a different level.

Should they get to choose the food? No. If I can't in my cafeteria, then they sure ass hell can't. Access on the computer? Limited access to the web. Porn? I still say no. Give them a JC Penney catalogue.

[Redallnite]

My GOODNESS, I thought I already expressed this, remember the chain gang? Bring it back baby!!

[Diva]

Oh it's back...I take it you haven't been to Alabama lately?

[Jennafer]

It isn't fair, but the first lesson I learned as a kid, was...Life isn't fair. And I never forget it. They get college, three meals a day, Tv, and a roof over their head for doing something wrong. Then there's other people,homeless with kids starving, who probably just had some shitty luck in life and are stuck in a bad situation. It's beyond Bullshit. And the criminals don't have to change much, because they know they're safe when they break the law. They're going back to the Holiday Inn, where all their friends are, and I think alot of them just want to go back. Because they are comfortable there. It's easy and they've learned to deal with that way of life. They don't have to make any big decisions for themselves, it's all taken care of. I have a member of the family, who keeps going back, and I think it's because of these reasons. So, I get pretty sick of the whole thing.:mad: