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?

It would be great. But people don’t teach themsleves to read. Adults need 1:1 or very small group teaching and the gov just doesn’t have the money for that.

A TV hasn’t been a “luxury” since Queen Elizabeth 2 was crowned

I work in prison education and I’m married to a prison officer and we both wholeheartedly disagree with this.

We both work with lifers. The building and the sentence is the punishment, but we have to take the criminals and try to make them
fit for societal consumption. People can’t be locked up behind a door and left. They have to develop the skills to interact with others and part of that is having a TV or exercising. Sooner or later, they are going to be released. How can we justify isolating them from basic life skills, conversations or relationship-building while they’re inside?

They may have committed horrible crimes but they're still people. Do you want them to sit in their cells going slowly mad? If they're on a life sentence all they need is to pass the time, and not cause any damage or injury to other people. If that means TVs, gym, etc so be it.

No.

Loss of liberty, family, friends, being a criminal plus boredom = higher danger and a complete disaster for the staff and other inmates.

Drug use and criminal activity inside a prison is already horrendous. Depriving them of activities would make this worse.

Prisoners generally also have work, education and rehab programs.. these things you’ve mentioned are a luxury but they’re earned with good behaviour (whilst imprisoned)

Don’t forget some criminals are rewarded with such things for cooperation in catching other ‘bigger/worse’ criminals or for leading police to bodies etc. Its a negotiation tactic. If someone (however evil) gets a tv and a grieving parent is finally able to find out what happened to their missing kid and give them a proper funeral then frankly I’m ok with it.

And What would they do all day instead? Fight, take drugs, go insane from lack of stimuli?

Step away from the Daily Mail, who regularly say prisons are holiday camps.

TVs and gyms are the least of costs in prison. Legend has it that when Richard Whiteley (the late presenter of countdown) visited a prison, the staff there said how grateful they were to him for keeping prisoners quiet for half an hour each day.

Surely using a gym is personal development? Healthy body, healthy mind and all that.

3 purposes to prison
1- punishment
2- public safety
3- rehabilitation

A person serving a life sentence will generally be freed at some point and will need to reengage into society. Prisons should be calm and humane places where prisoners can rehabilitate and address the issues that lead to their (sometimes awful) crimes so that they can hopefully contribute to society in the longer term

You seem to think prisons are very well funded. They're not. There is no money to run an 8 hour a day programme of rehabilitation, accountability, or personal development. I suspect they get 1 hour a day if they're lucky.

Also, what do you expect people to do in the evening to unwind? There is no funding for nice hobby clubs, most prisoners are functionally illiterate so won't read books. No staff wants to work evenings to run more programmes.

It's like underfloor heating in prisons - people get outraged and think of it as a luxury, but it prevents people from accessing any pipes to hang themselves or use as a weapon. TV and exercise is probably the cheapest way to relax and get rid of adrenaline.

The focus should be on

1. rehabilitation
2. keeping society safe

I understand that in some cases 1 and 2 aren't compatible and 2 takes priority.

I don't see how minor luxuries (minor compared to losing your liberty) like tv or gym equipment serve either of the points above so I think yabu.

Not sure that access to repeats of Cash in the Attic is much of a luxury these days?

⬆️ folks, please consider the views of people who actually know what's involved in these situations

We already have a recruitment

Similar to small children, you have to give them things to encourage good behaviour as any misdemeanor will result in privileges being removed.

E.g smash someone's face in = TV confiscated.

So they can do a degree for free whilst good folk pay £9500 per year x 3

Prison isn't a punishment though!!
They have it better inside that some people have it outside!!
3 meals a day, heating electricity, a bed, a phone call, TV, games, the only thing they really go without is seeing family and friends regularly, yet they can still calm them and they can have visitors, oh and they even leave with qualifications if they want to!!!

So given a choice would you choose to go to prison (if you didn't have to commit a crime for it)?

If not, why not, in spite of all the perks?

Of course it’s not a punishment it’s a holiday camp! That’s why people are committing crimes, to get themselves locked up and live a life of luxury! Oh wait, no, criminals are still trying to NOT get caught 🙄

Go get a job in a prison and report back.

You have no clue.

I think for the ones that can be rehabilitated, these facilities should be available - especially the training for work when they're released. It's important that they're able to be punished for their crime but not written off by society, that would benefit nobody.

The hardcore criminals who make it their lifelong career to be in prison and try to 'run' them, they should have access to nothing. They're being housed at the taxpayer's expense and they have no interest in being rehabilitated as per the prison compact.

And what will they do with that degree, other than get a bit of paper to put on the wall in their cell?
If you want to do a degree "for free", then feel free to commit a crime and go to prison.

We've got a few homeless people here, 2 who have been to prison on numerous occasions, simply because they get fed and a bed!!

The meals are awful and inadequate for an adult human. The pads are a disgrace and not all wings have heating so they’re often freezing. I’m not a prisoner sympathiser but I‘ve seen first-hand what they have to deal with and it’s not the positive experience some media will have you believe.

So many of mine say that they’re never coming back again and so far, touch wood, they haven’t. I’ve never had one saying “prison is comfy so I can’t wait to come back in” so it can’t be that amazing.