to think students are being treated worse than prisoners?

[RopeGoat]

So, many students are currently being locked down.

1. They're paying up to £10,000 for their accommodation. A 8x12ft room that they aren't permitted to leave.
2. Their key cards have been blocked so they're physically held against their will despite having no symptoms and no actual contact with anyone who has tested positive.
3. They're only in the accommodation because universities insisted classes would be face-to-face and that they must move to campuses. Only to told days after arriving that it's all online.
4. Some universities are providing food but it's unhealthy, out of date and massively overpriced. University of York charging £10 for a sandwich, packet of crisps and a chocolate bar.
5. No access to tests because all the tests available to them are drive-through. The vast majority of students don't have cars and they can't carpool or get a taxi for a Covid test. Universities are actively refusing them tests to reduce the numbers so they look better.
6. Charged £30 for a load of laundry - which is more necessary than normal in order to try and reduce the spread of Covid.

I could give many more examples. Surely this is unacceptable treatment of any group in our society? I'd be outraged if prisoners were being treated like this (so would many others) so why are so many (not all) people not standing up for students here? What can we do to help?

@pjmask find me another single offence that more than 36% of the female custody population are in for? Single offence not category.

Last I saw of some students, they were having parties.....was it at Durham? Can’t remember now.

Point of order: yet again an OP has dropped a thread full of dubious allegations regarding universities and then seemingly buggered off while folk on here get themselves wound up.

Give it a couple of hours and we’ll probably get another thread by someone claiming to be ‘trapped’ in their uni halls, being locked in and prevented from leaving by the army or some such balls 🙄

The police were outside halls in Manchester a couple of weeks ago preventing students from leaving weren’t they?

Anyway OP, YANBU, they are being treated appallingly.

Also, I’m potentially being really dense here but in a hall of students I can’t see how the isolation period can be ‘just two weeks’. Unless they’re all locked in their rooms (and universities seem to be adamant that they aren’t), surely the isolation period has to start to run again every time someone in the hall develops symptoms?

@Shinyletsbebadguys

Firstly having worked in prisons extensively OP you are very naive , it is not remotely the same. I think it is very hard for students (my nephew is back at university) but not every case is like the ones you describe.

You are catastrophising from some , so far you have not shown evidence of being true , cases across the board where these things are patently not happening in most places.

I'd be extremely surprised that they are locking in people with deactivated keycards. If they are, then absolutely that is horrific (and illegal).

For those comments about prisons , I don't understand why people make generalisations about things that have no idea about. Yes some people are on remand and haven't been convicted yet ...however do you really understand why people are remanded? It's not willy nilly there are reasons for it. However the same as others have said prisoner ethnicity is unfairly weighted because the courts and police are.
Finally , how we treat prisoners is less a reflection on them and more a reflection on how we choose to be as a society. Treating prisoners humanely is about us choosing to respect human life , to a point ( as in the difference between restricting freedom to not condoning an abusive system) I've been the victim of a horrific crime to a family member, I have also worked heavily within the system. None of it is simple ,none of it can be boiled down to a few generalised lines on a forum post. It requires extensive consideration of different circumstances.

If you choose to pick and choose how you treat human life , I'm afraid it says more about you than it does about them. Its not about them , it's about who we choose to be. No that's not easy , and I promise you I have stood in courts in the most horrific circumstances and I practise what I preach , as mind bendingly hard as it was.

Very insightful post. You've opened my eyes.

@KarlKennedysDurianFruit the stats you are referring to relate to women in the CJS, not women in custody. The reason I know this is because I am on your side

This is largely bollocks and isn’t the case is most universities, far from it. Did you get this from the Daily Heil?

Do you have evidence that this is actually happening.
Because it's not at the universities I know well ....

Don't believe everything you read/see in the media.

They are all fine and dandy in my city. Some have to isolate because they have cases in their flats but Tesco near my house (I live by a halls) on Friday was doing a roaring trade in booze from the students .
The university I attend has campus lectures for most courses albeit reduced.

I work at one of the universities that has featured heavily in the press.
What's been recorded is pretty much complete bullshit.

Reporters have paid students to make signs for their windows, they've chosen to interview students behind metal fences when there was a perfectly good open, grassy space 10 yards away, they've chosen to ignore the vast amount of support that has been put in place by the universities, they've not bothered to report the fact that students are holding 'Covid parties, and are actively infecting each other......

I understand your anger but think you are seriously over reacting. What do you suggest that they continue their reckless behaviour that many of them took part in? They are adults and will survive.

People have died.
We are in a pandemic.
The media is over exaggerating their reporting.
Most students I have seen are definitely not been locked in like prisoners.

There is a fair few who always avoid going to face to face lectures covid or no covid.

@karlkennedysdurianfruit only 19 people (men and women) were imprisoned in 2017 for not having a tv license. Given the female prison population is c.3700 women it is absolutely incorrect to say the single biggest crime women are imprisoned for is not having a tv license. Being prosecuted does not automatically mean sent to prison. In future, please check your facts. No point getting angry over something that isn't true.

@cakegirl2020 I can see why you'd think it was all the worst people in society but take it from experience (I worked in a womens prison) it isn't.

One prisoner I knew was there because she had managed to get the knife away from her husband who was attacking her with it, and had been abusing her for 12 years. She stabbed him in the leg to get away and got sent to prison. He remained free.

Another woman I knew stole a car to get away from her pimp (her brother) because she was sick and tired of him beating her and selling her body to up to 6 men per night. Again, the pimp was never charged with anything.

Oh ffs. Catastrophising much? They have to isolate when there's a positive case. As do we all. It sucks. But they're adults and am sure will
cope

This ^

Although as OP has posted such a load of rubbish and then vanished, I'm going to assume they are just here to goad, not raise and actual issue or start a reasonable debate.

I was a university student in the early 2000s’ and I came from a working class background so I’m pretty dumbfounded at the suggestion that students have it particularly hard at the moment - so does anyone with not much money ?? Or is all the complaining because privileged people are getting a taste of what life is like when you aren’t so privileged??

[quote user1471457751]@karlkennedysdurianfruit only 19 people (men and women) were imprisoned in 2017 for not having a tv license. Given the female prison population is c.3700 women it is absolutely incorrect to say the single biggest crime women are imprisoned for is not having a tv license. Being prosecuted does not automatically mean sent to prison. In future, please check your facts. No point getting angry over something that isn't true.[/quote]
The offence of not having a TV licence is a NON-IMPRISONABLE offence.

Nobody is in prison for not having a TV licence.
Each year, a very small number of people are sent to prison for not paying the fine that they received for having no TV licence.

You ever been to a prison?
Some unis may be doing as you say, but of the seven students I know at (different) unis only one is confined to his group house as five out of six tested positive. The rest are able to go out, though a few only have classes online now, and no parties. Hardly the same as prison.

1. They are paying rent, just like every other renter in the country.
2. They are self isolating, just like everyone else in the country that is self isolating.
3. They're in accommodation because they didn't want to organise their own house/flat.
4. Some universities are providing free food, the rest of the country have to pay for their own.
5. Students dont really need tested as they are not a vulnerable group and are hardly unwell, others should be prioritised.
6. Cant imagine they need much laundry done if they are confined to their room for a few weeks.

Students aren't doing too badly, they will still come out with a degree.

@gavisconismyfriend

This is not reflective of all universities. Certainly not the one I work at. Small numbers of students required to isolate, provided with regular care packs, residences checking in on them regularly, organising socials on zoom etc. Exaggeration weakens your case OP.

Not all unis are doing that. The only support my son's flat have had is a pack of bog rolls left outside the door.

@FunDragon

The police were outside halls in Manchester a couple of weeks ago preventing students from leaving weren’t they?

Anyway OP, YANBU, they are being treated appallingly.

Also, I’m potentially being really dense here but in a hall of students I can’t see how the isolation period can be ‘just two weeks’. Unless they’re all locked in their rooms (and universities seem to be adamant that they aren’t), surely the isolation period has to start to run again every time someone in the hall develops symptoms?

Nail on the head. There are 8 in my son's Uni flat. 1 caught covid so the other 7 have isolated for 2 weeks. None of them have symptoms, so likely to catch it when they are allowed out. So, almost inevitably another 2 week lockdown when the next person gets it. Could go on months if they catch it one at a time.

I’m so glad my dad has finished uni, this would’ve broken him .
I hate how the media are demonising them too, it’s disgusting

*ds not dad 😬

Testing should be available. Raised by one of the MPs for Hull. No idea if Mr Johnson's government will do anything though.