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You should probably start giving people hair cuts at the Tower of London again. That's always a solid fix.

Mr Hyena wrote:

and due to people being less sympathetic to prisoners

I wonder why.

Because people like to act smug with their own self-righteousness rather than educating themselves. In the case of prisoners, it's something like a a twisted amalgamation of schadenfreude and vengeful spite.

Dostoevsky once wrote "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons".

 Jihadin wrote:
So does the UK gov't buy the TV or dothe prisoners use their own funds?

The prison estate buys the TV (so, yeah tax funded). Prisoners pay 10p per day for the privilege.

Prisoners can buy out of their own funds digi boxes (not sure if that is allowed now). Ps2, Gamecubes (with internet connectivity disabled) radios, stereos, clothing and other consumables.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Orlanth wrote:

 Mr. Burning wrote:


Ah the luxury of toilet next to the head of your bed, with nothing but a manky old screen (if you are lucky), next to the sink where you wash your own plastic cutlery. Truly, it is luxury beyond compare. Crapping in front of a cell mate, priceless.

What you are actually pointing out is the gross discrepancy between certain UK prisons. Some are grimdark Victorian hellholes, others have the 'Butlins' reputation. Also prison warders and civil servants vary from the dour stony types to the touchy feely 'criminals-are-the-victims' types.

I don't disbelieve your testimony Mr. Burning, but there is plenty of room for the overly soft system prisons to have developed elsewhere.

Yeah, you are right, the new super prisons, esp those run by private companies like G4S, have access to things such as inbuilt showers, flat screens and phones in each cell.

Reagrdless of this is one fact remains. prisoners are stuck in that environment day after day. It's their punishment. They cannot get out of it or retreat from it (nor should they).

It isnt a hotel, you cannot just up an leave, you cannot, for instance say, sod it forget, TV tonight, lets go down the pub or take a stroll.

Prioners are adaptable though, you have to be in order to survive.

I'm not sure making new prisoners wear a uniform for 2 weeks is a good thing, sounds like the equivalent of wearing a big flashing sign say "harass me". I hear new prisoners cop enough problems when initially in (at least over here) making them stand out so much cannot be a good thing.