What should prison be like?

[English assassin]

It seems to me prison should be for punishment for the offender, for deterance for everyone else, and for rehabilitation of the offender.

Not all of those will in fact be acheived in every case, but those are surely the aims. We shouldn't prioritise any one to the exclusion of the others (sorry JAG)

What is clear is being anally raped isn't acceptable under any of those grounds. I don't really understand (well, I do,) how its possible to have an environment which is in principle so controled, and where in practice its the law of the jungle so long as no one is stupid enough to have a crack at a warden.

Bottom line is that the imprisoning authorities should be responsible for a safe environment in jail, or, as DC says, they have no business sending anyione there. Why don't the victims sue? We'd see some increased spending on CCTV and wardens after a few multimillion dollar payouts.

Edit: Oh yes, and medicalising rather than criminalising drug addiction would be a good idea..