To believe that prisoners serving life sentences shouldn’t have access to luxuries like TV or gym equipment?

[NimbleRoseMoose]

Why should taxpayers fund entertainment for people who’ve committed heinous crimes?

Which is harder to do if they are cooped up with only a wall to stare at 24/7!

There is works/education. However they’re grossly underfunded (and cost the tax payers far more than a tele) and understaffed. They’re frequently cancelled due to issues beyond the individuals establishments control. They’re also a very small portion of the day, maybe a couple of hours. The atmosphere on the landings when the lads are bored is incredibly difficult to describe. You can feel their frustration. I can guarantee that staff assaults would increase massively without tvs etc.

there’s also the question of how we would enforce rules inside? Criminals don’t automatically come into the jail and start behaving. They earn their enhanced status, which entitles them to the television etc. We also remove them as a consequence of ‘bad’ behaviour. How would you manage that if there was nothing for them to gain/lose.

Agree, also if they did not have access to gym / exercise you could have even more violence / disturbances to deal with which could potentially cost the tax payers money.

Same with TV, they have to have something to do other wise they would go mad and I’m sure the tax payers would then be footing the bill for that treatment as well

The punishment is loss of liberty. As pp's have mentioned prison would be far more dangerous without privileges.
Another function of prison is rehabilitation. As most prisoners will be released at some point. Just locking them up in a bare cell until their time is up will not help avoid them re offending. Norway's prison are luxurious compared to other around the world and prisoners have far more privileges. Yet the reoffending rates are 20% after 2 years, compared to 60% in the UK, making it a far more efficient system and safer for the general population by preventing crime.

Have access to library. Grow food/care for a garden

Idle violent murderers isn’t a good idea. Of course tv and gym equipment is fine

Unless they are isolating most of the day is spent in education or work. They watch tv when we do, in the evening. Also mostly the crap channel, can borrow the some dvds.

They don't have Netflix

Prisons are spectacularly unpleasant places. They are cramped, over-crowded, have very limited facilities, the food is appalling (I'm not talking about from a choice / taste perspective, the nutrition and quality is terrible, and the amount allocated per prisoner is ridiculously small). In most prisons they are locked in small cells for most of the time.
The idea that prisons are some sort of holiday camp all-inclusive lark is very silly indeed.
Having some sort of reward structure for good behaviour (like gym time) is a crucial way of managing behaviour, too. Prisons would be even more violent and unpleasant otherwise. Life prisoners are a particular risk, because they don't have much to lose if they are in for a very long minimum term anyway.

Are there any studies which break this down into proportion of crime types? Where are they seeing reoffending? The societies that formed the criminal and that the crimes were committed in are different to that of the UK

Sorry crap channels !

57% of prisoner in British prisons have a reading age of less than 11 years old. Many of them can’t read.

So you think setting up education, work and rehabilitation opportunities will cost less than putting the telly on?

I know. No better time to learn surely? Wouldn't they have more opportunity to integrate into a more functional life if they came out more literate than they went in.

Was coming on to say this.

Also aside from the fact that prison gardens cost money, this is only an activity that will be available part of the year surely?

Do you understand how hard it is to teach adults to read and how much harder it is to get a teacher to work in a

But as an aside, many are taught if they are able to be. But it’s not that simple

They probably do learn. But they are also allowed down time with a TV too. And gym for general fitness.

Yes, they would. Holistic rehabilitation is the way forward, not a revolving door. Treating people with respect and providing opportunities to change and grow is far more cost effective in the long run.

We have a library. However, I frequently have to read correspondents for them, because they’re aren’t able to do it themselves. And things like gardens etc are a really good idea. But the prison population is huge. The establishment I work in currently has over 500 inmates. There isn’t the space to make it work. They’d get maybe an hour a week if that. The rest of the time they would still be getting wound up and more dangerous.

Yes. I work in this field. I'm also in favour though of keeping them away from the public for longer than they currently are, and in favour of building more prisons working in tandem with rehabilitation long term.

This. As I was once told by a senior prison officer, the staff need the prisoners to have something to lose as a result of bad behaviour in order to keep control.

I have worked in cat A and believe me it’s hard enough without a TV.

A very high percentage of prisoners are in for short duration spells. It's hard enough to get someone set up on a methadone programme pre release back into the community, or find somewhere to accommodate them if they don't have somewhere to go.

Clearly someone who has no idea how prisons work.

TV and gym use are used to incentivise good behaviour which in turn feeds into a safer establishment for both other prisoners and staff. If prisoners dont behave then incentives are lost. When you have nothing left to lose there is no leverage.

Personally I dont think the safety of other prisoners and staff should be risked more than is necessary because you dont like the idea; although tv and exercise are hardly luxurious in todays world.

Absolutely but if the budget was there to address the literacy issues, people like the OP would be posting about how we shouldn’t showering money on criminals, what about the NHS / schools / [insert more worthy cause here].

Adult literacy on the scale you are talking about would require teachers, books etc. There are no votes in helping prisoners - no government is going to fund such a programme.

Things like gym equipment and shared TVs aren't luxuries when you're locked up, they're extremely cost effective ways to slow the physical and psychological deterioration that prison causes.

We absolutely should have more and better education and rehabilitation programs in prisons and prisoners should have more opportunity to work in safe jobs for reasonable compensation, but those programs are a lot more expensive to run than buying some basic weights and cheap tvs for rec rooms.

So is your priority saving taxpayer money or making prisons more cruel?