Over at Kiwiblog, there has been some discussion on the comfort level of prisons.
One commenter- who may or may not be an ex-inmate- denies emphatically that they are not holiday camps.
He is both right and wrong.
Not all prison units are the same. Some are bloody awful- some are better than holiday camps I have stayed in. I'm talking tennis courts- yes tennis courts!- libraries, basketball courts and of course- all essential services supplied.
To you or me, even a stay in the better class of prison unit would be unpleasant. To many inmates it is not. This is a function of how your life on the outside is.
Many of the inmates are not evil predators. They are just terminally useless idlers who find prison a refuge from the rigours of life. An escape from the need to pay for ones expenses- the need to organise accommodation, power, transport, entertainment, heating- all of those sort of details.
Commit a crime or six and your needs are effortlessly met. You don't have to deal with WINZ, IRD, food banks or the SKY installer.
Drugs are still readily available- just more expensive.
There is no need to think- if you need to be somewhere- the nice man in green will lead you by the hand.
No worries about finding the money for the doc or the chemist- all you medical expenses are met! You self- inflicted diseases are treated and it doesn't cost anybody any money- the government pays!
Of course they moan about life inside- but they moan about life on the outside too.
If you want to met whiney-assed crybabies- prison is the place to do so. All the inmates do is whinge about their 'rights'.
I don't think the current prison model is the place for these types.
They need the Workhouse!
4 comments:
OK - I'll own that Tongariro has at times resembled a holiday camp. I'm thinking the time I was there, returning to my car to find 40 or 50 inmates (very low security) playing volleyball & paying unecessary attention to my wheels.
from a site on workhouses
Boring and hard to eat
The food generally provided in workhouses was based around bread, gruel, meat, cheese, potatoes and suet pudding. Some regional differences were allowed for so that, for example, on the coast fish was often provided in place of meat.
VIndeed modern nutritionists have found that the diet although lacking in certain nutrients is reasonably healthy, provided that full measures were served and the quality of the raw materials was good.
Authentic recipe for gruel
Ingredients
16 oz oatmeal
8 pints water
Salt or treacle (optional depending on mood of workhouse master or guardians)
Method:
Boil
Cook's note: For added authenticity leave in warm place overnight!
That would cut costs of keeping the scum inside and i doubt they would then want to return either.
I'm going to punt that Serbian jails are more like holiday camps than ours are.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4150222a4560.html
:)
BTW - prison food here is typically battered & deep fried. Hard to say what exactly is under the batter though.
Llew some of us are becoming concerned that you seem to have a deeper knowledge of the inside of our prisons than say Oz who was a PO.
Something you want to share with the rest of the class?
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