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Should prisoners have heating?

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Reply 40

Ribbit1234

They should just all hang. Murderers rapists and pedos that it.

Reply 41

KICHMYARSE

i think the point of prison is to cut social contacts. you only get to see those who are in the prison with you. you dont have choices.

the us gang culture shows that prison fails completely in that respect.

Reply 42

Swanbow

Original post by HeyFromNY_USA

Yes, logic is key. Sensitivity not necessarily, but logic definitely.

Glad to hear that not all Americans are focused on the so called 'punishment' aspect of imprisonment :smile:

Reply 43

Carl18

Original post by russellsteapot

I think the strongest rational arguments (setting aside morality/human rights, which are obvious) in favour of good prison conditions are that it is used to maintain order and ensure prisoners are easier to control (the Woolf Report into the Strangeways riot touches on this in much greater detail), and also because prisoners whose term is served in nicer conditions are significantly less likely to reoffend. It's the same reason they should have access to TV, games consoles and whatnot. Treat someone as a human being and incentivise good behaviour and they'll have more chance of popping out the other end as a functioning member of society. Freezing them isn't really a suitable means of doing that.

Prison is a ****ing horrible place, and pretty much nobody enjoys going there. While it does cost quite a lot to keep people in prison, it's about as far from luxury as you'll find in this country, despite what the media might say. I'd say the present conditions are somewhere around the minimum required conditions for anything approaching an effective system (but failings elsewhere mean it still isn't very effective).

I agree with this and what some others have said too but then I probably would because I was in prison (young offenders) a few years ago. I got 8 months but only served 8 weeks but that was long enough and I hope I never go back.

Like others have said not everybody in prison is a murderer or a rapist. I probably deserved to be there but ending up in prison if you are a normal person is one of the worst experiences you can have. There were other prisoners there who seemed to be used to it and didn't really mind being locked up but they had bad lives and probably weren't losing out as much by being locked up.

If your brother, father or son was in prison I am sure you would want them treated alright and having heating is part of that and getting fed properly, clothes and not getting beaten up should always happen.

I know people give out about prisoners getting 'luxuries' but most of the 'luxuries' come from money that is put on your account by your family. You get about £12 a week from the actual prison but with that allowance you have to pay for phone credit, tobacco, snacks, shower stuff so it isn't very much. Yeah we had TVs but you pay £1 a week to rent them. People say they didn't have them in prisons years ago - maybe they didn't but lots of people didn't have TVs years ago.

You have to remember there are always lots more prisoners than guards and it's better for everybody if you have things to keep you occupied and not causing trouble. On weekends you can be locked up in your cell for 22 hours and if you didn't have a TV there would be a lot more trouble just even from boredom. Any priviliges you have can be taken away if you get into trouble and that does happen so it is a good reason not to be getting into trouble.

I know prison isn't meant to be easy but just treating people badly for the sake of it doesn't make any sense.