Wtf!!!

[Isityouorme]

Catching up on Gordon Ramsey's Behind Bars and apparently the prisoners get 5 choices for the evening meal!!! No fucking way! This is taking the mickey! No wonder this country is fucked up.....

I apologise. I was facetious with my reply.

ffs.. I cant believe there are so many bleeding hearts on this thread...

You commit the crime, and you do the fecking time. Maybe if it was a bit more bloody harsh inside it would be a deterrant, because it sure as fuck isnt at the moment.

I already knew this, but it isn't really a surprise it's not like they are catering to needs or whims, just basic food intolerances/religious requirements.

I actually know several inmates that changed religion as the halal food is fresher than the normal stuff .

In the US, where they bang them up in tents in the desert, give them shit food and they are regularly assaulted, beaten and raped in prison, the death penalty is an option and they have a three strikes rule...they have a really low prison population, don't they? No, hold on, it is one of the highest in the Western world.

Sorry, got that wrong, it is the highest.

If its being a bleeding heart to not want to spend LESS THAN £1.20 a day on meals for adults, no matter what they have done, well then wipe me down with a tesco value wipe cos I'm dripping all over the floor.

What do you want to feed them, dog food?

I actually think its more like. £2.47 or something like that.

They reoffend because their lives are so utterly shit and meaningless on the outside.

This is not something for others to aspire to - it's something to pity and wish to fix.

I watched it and, if I remember correctly, the 5 'choices' were:

Meal 1
Meal 2
Vegetarian
Vegan
Halal

So not a choice of 5 for all the inmates. You have to have vege, vegan and halal options cause...well, prisoners still have human rights.

However, much as GR irritates me, it did make me laugh when, following a conversation with the catering manager, he said:

'He says customers, I say prisoners. He says choices, I say f*ck off'.

"They reoffend because their lives are so utterly shit and meaningless on the outside"

That most certainly does not apply to all. Some maybe.

I know men who have been sent down for violent crime, come out, back to a celebratory party with their mates, and within weeks they are back inside for sticking a bottle in some other innocent persons face. Their lives were not shit, they are just arrogant tossers who have no fear of prison, and know that they will be out again to reoffend in a few months.

Sorry squeaky - that sounds beyond shitness to me my dear

Good posts MrsTerry, Penisvan and Laurie.

The problem is, Squeaky that these are exactly the people who do better when prison is nastier. If it is violent, that suits them. If it is horrible they intimidate other prisoners and guards so they do alright. If they get longer stretches, they run the place.

I know it seems like us bleeding hearts value prisoners more than victims but that is not the case. I hate crime too. It is exactly like smacking children. You don't teach children that violence is wrong by hitting them. You don't teach adults that offending is wrong by treating them as sub-human.

Don't we all have five choices for our evening meals?
We make our own meal plans, I just decide on the day and take something out of the freezer.
My mum had three choices in her care home, but it was lovely food, served personally to her room.
Let's just starve the bastards.

It's 3 choices plus a veggie and vegan. That's not crazy, much less than even schools do.

I remember covering court one day in December (local reporter) when a hopeless old tramp got called up for shoplifting something trivial - his mitigation was that he wanted to be in prison for Christmas as it was warm and he'd get fed. His solicitor advocate actually argued for a custodial sentence. Very sad, and I'm sure not that uncommon. I also came across ex-lags who reoffended because they were so institutionalised they couldn't cope on the outside.

But I doubt that most criminals reoffend because of the choice of meals. And there's no way we shouldn't be giving prisoners decent meals.

Fil spent half his adult life in and out of prison. He openly admits he didn't find much hardship about it. He preferred it to being stationed in bangkok with the army

He is a genuine nutter though.

If someone killed your loved one/raped a friend/stole your hard earned possessions/threatened your granny with a knife would you be happy knowing that they would serve their time in prison playing xbox and getting a choice for dinner while you were left footing the bill?

It's catering for a range of needs - that's hardly a scandal - what are they supposed to eat, gruel?

The punishment of prison is loss of liberty - we take away peoples right to have freedom

we don't tend to treat people like scum these days - we are better than that as human beings surely?

The x boxes are earned - also they help deal with boredom caused by being locked in your cell 23 hours a day :)

I would want my rapist locked away - if he was treated like shit it wouldn;t make me feel better

Lol Summer. DH's uncle has done time in several prisons and agrees 1950s boarding school was harder. He is a genuine nutter too. And loves hardship

wannabedomesticgoddess lots of people who are victims of crime are better people than that. I knew someone who was repeatedly raped as a child by a family member. Thankfully he died before she told anyone. And, good riddance to him. She always said that if he was alive, she would want him tried and convicted but treated humanely. She was a better person than him and will always be. Compassion is possible even when someone has done something unimaginable brutal.

I brought this up in the thread about prison being easy...

They should not get 5 choices. Our KIDS don't get five choices. Residents in the care home I worked at only had 2 choices.

I'd prefer that prisons were more comfortable, not less. They should be places where damaged humans can be rehabilitated and educated, and prepared for their return to society as functioning citizens. If I was running a prison, I wouldn't just give them 5 choices, I'd let them draw up the menu.

high fives quip and Mrs Terry P