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Ferangled, on 2012-05-22 14:35:19, said:
ratcatcher, on 2012-05-22 07:28:47, said:
Bang Kwang and its ilk may not be nice places, but then again they aren't supposed to be. Prisons in some countries are rather like country clubs.
As the old saying goes "If you can't do the time...........etc"
As the old saying goes "If you can't do the time...........etc"
I find this sort of view totally naive and medieval in outlook. How can we expect anyone to be integrated back into society if they are subject to criminality in prison? Take a troubled individual and send them to a breeding ground for vice and violence... great idea Einstein!
Most conveniently ignore the fact that the vast majority of people in jail are in for non violent crimes - failure to pay taxes, driving without a license etc. Most Governments would like us to believe that prisons are full of murderers, rapists and armed robbers but the facts are very different; such inmates make up a very small fraction of the total number of convicts.
One particular case will always stick in my mind - UK, painter & decorator supporting a family of 5 single handed, lost his license for speeding, continued to drive as vital to his work, caught driving without a license or insurance - 2 years in jail. His children watched in tears as he was lead away, then were promptly taken into care.
Next case - Grievous Bodily Harm, community service and a small fine, man left court laughing his head off and threatening to "do him in properly next time".
Next case - Cultivation of marijuana with intent to supply - community service and a small fine, man left court in his BMW M3 with a big smile on his face, smoking a large hand rolled "cigarette".
That is the reality of jails, they aren't filled with evil, violent cons, they're full of quite normal people who've either been unfortunate or stupid. Sadly by the time they leave they will probably have picked up a few nasty habits to bring back to society...
This painter could have sat on his arse living of benefits in a council house but instead got out there and tried to earn an honest living. He made a mistake, no one was hurt, he didn't profit from it, yet his and his families life were ruined as a result of it.
I detest those so quick to judge based on false preconceptions. If you really believe that jails should be nasty places akin to medieval dungeons with widespread torture and rape, you need locking up yourself; that sort of perverted view is, in my opinion, the real danger to society. It demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what modern society is and should be.
Jail should be about education, rehabilitation and deprivation of freedom, no more and no less.
Wrong. Dead wrong. Critics of the penal system routinely try to net all the true criminals along with those falsely accused or otherwise somehow wrongly imprisoned; to "hide" by trying to fall in line with them. Yes, there are those - and the system does a great disservice to society when it allows innocents to be imprisoned under such circumstances. It's wrong; it's barbaric; it's inhuman to subject an innocent person to imprisonment. It's wrong that it happens due to financial circumstances or "sponsorship" by powerful individuals or due to oversentencing for petty offenses or regulatory infractions.. Yes - all of that wrong. But that doesn't we can't and shouldn't distinguish the true criminal from the jaywalker, and that the true criminal doesn't deserve his fate.. FOR the guilty - violent offenders, extortionists, thieves, drug pushers and drug users (yes, including users....), etc. - prison is and should be a place of punishment. Education & rehabilitation are secondary concerns when the person concerned truly is a predator and deserves to be locked up (and society deserves to be protected from HIM!).
