What should prison be like?

[Divinus Arma]

All prisoners should be in solitary confinement. There should be NO mingling. They should be restricted to their cells and have little access to anything else for the duration of their stay.

That would help. Of course, knowing that I would be butt-raped had certainly kept me from enaging in my more violent fantasies as an aggressive youth in the past.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Again, the central question one must ask about any prison system is: Are you going to let them out again?

If a state uses prison to punish, but intends that any prisoners thus committed will be released at some point, it has a moral duty to its citizens to strive towards rehabilitating those prisoners effectively. Allowing any brutalisation, however pleasing to the average populist, ignores the fact that releasing brutalised people back into the community will only perpetuate and increase violence and law-breaking.

The only other option to incredibly expensive rehabilitation and support programmes to break the cycle of re-offending (and acceptance that some will not respond) is to lock virtually every prisoner up for ever, no matter what their crime. Then you can leave them to their own devices, and you will still get a big bill, but this time for security measures to control desperate men and women.

So, the question to ask yourselves is: When he comes back out and sets up home near my family, do I want as a neighbour an emotionless thug who has been raped beyond human endurance, having learned to survive by the lowest of human instincts?

[Faust|]

I agree with DA. Ironic as it may seem, somebody in for assault doesn't deserve to be brutalized and raped.

[doc_bean]

It depends. Do you want a prison to be punishment, or rehabilitation ? Or a little of both ?

I personally feel prisons should at least provide basic human "rights": food, water, a bed, reasonable climate conditions, and the security of not getting butt-raped. A distinction should be made based on the type of crime: a young shoplifter might just need some discipline and possibly some education to put him back on the right track, while a recidivist child molester should imo never be released again. The type of prison you put them in should reflect the different needs.

Making prison about punishment might seem like the thing to do in the heat of the moment, but it isn't the civilized thing to do. It certainly doesn't fit with my Christian upbringing. I don't believe prisons should be luxury resorts where all prisoners just play PlayStation all day, they should have order in their life again, and if possible, a purpose such as a job or an education they can focus on.

Furthermore, if you're going to release prisoners again, I think it is important to give them a chance in the real world again. For this reason prisoners should be employed for various things. Cleaning roads, basic manufacturing, repairs, etc. preferably public services so they don't compete with private companies. A part of the money they earn should go to them, as a sort of savings account. This money could be used by them to get back on their feet after they get released.

Youth punishment is a difficult issue. I think if the crime is bad enough (violent crimes like murder or rape, or second offences), they should be judged like adults.

[Don Corleone]

Believe it or not, Idaho, even heartless conservatives like myself actually have big issues with the American prison system. It's not just youths either. We don't segregate based on the violence of the offense you're going away for anymore. We try to, but prisons are so overcrowded, some punk selling grass at the local university is going to be labelled 'drug-dealer' and go to a maximum security prison (translation, bring the vaseline).

It took something like 8 months for the inmates to get their hands on Jeffrey Dahmer and beat him to death, in the middle of a rec room mind you, with mops and brooms and nobody, guards included, saw a thing. If anybody deserved that fate, that POS did, but my point is, if that can happen to somebody so notorious, it can happen to anybody that the powers that be in prison decide it should happen to. And let me tell you folks, the powers that be aren't the wardens.

We have a duty and a responsibility that when we incarcerate somebody, we MUST guarantee their safety. Their well-being (socialization, recreation the like) is a great goal, but as long as you cannot guarantee that somebody won't be forcibly sodomized in their 5 year prison stint, you have no right to put them there.

Of all the Leftist issues out there, prison reform would be the one that rings the most true with me. Its one of the few government programs that actually REALLY does need more spending.

Personally, I would make about 4 or 5 'reservations', in the middle of Alaska, Montana, and other remote areas. You have to fly to get there, there's not even a train for 50 miles....I'd have everyone sealed into individual pods and bring to them what was necessary. Think Pelican Bay (which, despite it's flaws, is actually very safe for the inmates, and they clam they've never had a rape).