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.....

There was a similar thread about this the other day when it and the Dispatches about lifers was first on.

Normal/Vegan/Vegetarian/Halal/Kosher and plus there are plenty of other options. Legally they are entitled to food which meets their dietary requirements, what they get served up is pretty disgusting by the looks of it.

I am personally a 'bleeding heart' as you put and feel very strongly we should treat them decently.

What does it say about us as a society if we insist that treating people badly and hurting them is criminal then we do it ourselves.

I'd rather starve than lose the freedom to go outside to breathe fresh air.

Can we just shake hands gordyslovesheep?

I now feel compelled to point out that my earlier post was meant in a sarcastic manner.

I wish I had the temerity just to be sarcastic without pointing it out

And if people are so aggrieved about the treatment of certain people why don't they campaign for change.

Yeah that's it make it an even nicer place to go when they re-offend...

Like I said in the other topic, some people want to go to prison

we can just nod knowingly to each other over a copy of the Grauniad if you like

Oh please.

The prisoner took away their own freedom when they committed the crime. Maybe boredom would give them a chance to reflect. I dont have an xbox because I have responsibilities. Why should they? Oh sorry, they were behaving well...

As for victims, yes some may hold that view, but some dont. At the hands of a criminal I have been under so much stress I may lose my baby...he can rot in hell as far as I am concerned.

Criminals dont give victims a choice. Why should we give them one.

For the record, I do believe in rehabilitation on the sense of gaining qualifications etc to help prisoners not reoffend. But only if they are truely remorseful.

if people lives are so shockingly shit outside of prison they'd rather be locked up that speaks volumes about the state of our society to be honest

because WE can and we are better people - or should we all sink to their level?

I really think that if you are under the impression that prison is a nice place to be then you are under the wrong impression

Gordy most have them only have theirselves to blame. I've seen a few people go 'yeah might go do some time, sort me ed out innit'.

Oh balls about being 'better people'. It doesnt make us any less of a good person if we stop being soft with criminals.

Send them to Azkaban I say!

To all these die-hard Daily Mail readers, you can either choose that anyone sent to prison remains there until they die (whatever the crime) or accept that the vast majority of prisoners will eventually come out of prison. Then work backwards from what you want to achieve: a functioning human being who is able to partipate in society without resorting to crime. You have this prisoner 24/7 for sometimes quite a long period before his release, so there's an opportunity to help.

Shutting a broken person away in a concrete cell with an xbox for 10 years gives you a broken person with really good fine motor controls in his thumbs. Of course he'll reoffend.

I'm sorry you were the victim of crime, wannabedomesticgoddess I really am. They don't give us a chance but I believe we should give them one because we are not criminals. I don't want anyone to suffer, whoever they are.

In my ideal world, offenders would be banged up in small house-like facilities. They would be doing all the cooking, cleaning and working. They would all have a useful function, education, rehab, work or volunteering. Their MH and/or addictions would be dealt with instead of the current shoddy and disgusting treatment. Things like abuse in their childhood, PDs and so on would be addressed. They would have groups and individual counselling to try to get to the bottom of their behaviour.

This will never happen.

Most of them have been instutionalised, most have not finished school, most have literacy issues, many are illiterate, many have had violent and abusive pasts, many have mental health problems, many have addictions to drugs and/or alcohol ...none have been brought up in a vacuum - and many will continue to reoffend unless helped to change

Hiya. I have insight to this as I worked in 4 different prisons.

The food is shite, but no more so than any other institution food. In fact, that little girls school dinner blog thing has worse looking food than in prison.
There is also plenty of bread and cereal in the morning.
I don't think it helps anyone (least of all society) to propose serving hard biscuits and mealworms.

And BTW for many, many prisoners I knew being in prison was no worse than you or I having to stay in a crap Travelodge. It was like an (as said above) occupational hazard. I knew several who would spin out of control 'on the out' and choose to go back in on licence. However, for others, it truly was Dante's ring of hell.

Quip, for one I don't read the daily mail. I know a lot of people who have been in and out of jail, that's where my opinion grows from

So basically we're treating prisoners like victims. People out in the world have to pay for GCSE's and such like, so should prisoners.

Yeah Gordy and a lot of them aren't. And even so, they know what they're doing. Stop making piss poor excuses for people's behaviour. A lot of people have had bag upbringings, abusive pasts, blah blah yadah yadah but we don't all turn to crime. It's a persons decision to do right or wrong. They chose wrong and should have to pay.

and a lot are ...do you think they will change WITHOUT education, support etc? You seem to feel the only solution to recidivism is cruelty - which is a shame

I'm going to hide this because I get angry and start upsetting people. Apologies for harshness and such.

Someone I know I has just gone inside for 4 years after threatening some people with a weapon. He has LD and has had MH problems for all of his adult life. He has developed drug and alcohol problems. He has never been able to access the right treatment, was let down by school and subsequently by GPs and MH services. This, combined with the inability of his family to show him some tough love, is largely what has landed him where he is now. His family are very sad that it came to this but are hopeful that some time inside will finally help him address his very profound problems. MrsTerry's post shows me that this is probably not going to happen, unfortunately.

Yes, they pay by losing their freedom. I'm not thinking that these prisoners are cuddly wuddly poor things just waiting to see the light. I'm thinking that, pragmatically, investing in them as humans being prepared for release will be more economical and effective in the long run than shutting them in a concrete cell with an xbox.

Yeah Gordy and a lot of them aren't. Actually, that is incorrect. The vast majority of people in prison do come under the headings gordy mentioned. It is a very unusual offender who is literate, never been abused, not mentally ill or with a PD, no addictions. Very unusual. I also worked in rehab and strongly agree that they do need to address their own issues. Feeding them shit and treating them like dirt won't make them do this. Addressing their issues properly might.

Can someone tell me if our armed forces get 5 choices a day before I start making rash comments about worthy and deserving people getting less preferential treatment than prisoners ....?!