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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

OP posts:
Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 19:05

bombastix · 06/08/2025 18:55

I love the list of prescribed or acceptable activities as if these engender some sort of wholesome mindset. As if prisoners read Dickens. They actually read true crime and thrillers about psychopaths. And their pictures are often depraved too.

Who said anything about about Dickens!

NeverDropYourMooncup · 06/08/2025 19:18

PansyPotter84 · 06/08/2025 09:57

As long as we can be sure that people like this are only coming out in a wooden box I really don’t care one way or the other what their life is like inside.

I’d be happy to offer voluntary euthanasia those who want “out” though.

Nah. If they request euthanasia, it puts an end to them being miserable.

With the size of him when he went in and the lack of activity/crap food since, a few extra fry-ups are probably contributing towards a case of type 2 diabetes with all the painful complications that involves if poorly managed by the person with it - other high profile prisoners there have been reported as having them, after all.

I'd chuck him a giant Toblerone each week for not being quite as much of a bastard to everybody if I thought it would help give him a gangrenous foot or two. And no euthanasia if T2 led to unbearable neuropathic pain. He won't be enjoying a bit of Fifa anymore if he can't see because he's lost his sight, either.

No need to risk making mistakes with other people through executions - he's got the means of making his life utter misery for a very, very long time this way. He just doesn't know it.

<shrug>

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 19:27

Greebosmum · 06/08/2025 19:04

I was at one time married to a prison officer. Looking after these people is not a fun job. Prisons basically run because the prisoners allow them to. To keep everyone safe the prisoners need to be content. If having an X Box and the threat of taking it away keeps him quiet that's a win all round. I also don't consider egg and bacon for breakfast particularly outlandish.

I can understand the victims or their relatives being sickened at the thought of the criminal having enjoyment in their lives!

lacookierahcha · 06/08/2025 19:30

To be fair my son wouldn’t see this as punishment. (Sort of) joking aside I think I agree with you. Xbox distracts. He should be made to sit and think for many years on what he has done without the aid of a dopamine salve.

Arlanymor · 06/08/2025 19:32

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 19:05

Who said anything about about Dickens!

That’s what I was wondering?! Unless it was my reference to Oliver Twist in a completely
different context purely in order to explain what gruel was?! Nothing to do with leisure pursuits!

nam3c4ang3 · 06/08/2025 19:43

As someone who has been directly affected by by the use of the death penalty - I do wonder how many would actually oppose if it if it concerned a loved one and it was proven. I knew someone who was actually murdered and their murderer got the death penalty. I have no sadness for him whatsoever. He admitted guilt and took the punishment. It’s very very different when it’s someone connected to you.

Nasrine · 06/08/2025 20:12

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 17:05

Well in regard to those on life sentences for major crimes, the public benefit by being protected from them! If they’re bored, I’m sure there is plenty of cleaning, maintenance etc to be done in prisons. They have an exercise yard. They have opportunities to read, write, learn, exercise. They don’t need TVs, X boxes or other entertainment. Many are beyond rehabilitation and should never see the light of day again.

Who are you to decide?

In the US they have vast numbers of people serving whole life sentences and five times the homicide rate of the UK.

Meanwhile Norway, with its notorious 'soft' prisons and shorter sentences, has homicide and recidivism rates far lower than both the US and the UK.

If your interest is preventing crime, the last criminal justice system you'd want to emulate is the US.

CurlewKate · 06/08/2025 20:14

PassingStranger · 06/08/2025 10:06

You may change your tune in they murdered one of yours.
Alot of them aren't mentally ill.in prison.
If they were they'd be in Broadmoor etc.

Yes I might. That’s why we have a criminal justice system, not vigilantism.

Nasrine · 06/08/2025 20:14

nam3c4ang3 · 06/08/2025 19:43

As someone who has been directly affected by by the use of the death penalty - I do wonder how many would actually oppose if it if it concerned a loved one and it was proven. I knew someone who was actually murdered and their murderer got the death penalty. I have no sadness for him whatsoever. He admitted guilt and took the punishment. It’s very very different when it’s someone connected to you.

Of course it's different when the victim is connected to you.

But the justice system isn't a personal vehicle for the vengeance of victims and their families.

bombastix · 06/08/2025 20:18

Nasrine · 06/08/2025 20:12

Who are you to decide?

In the US they have vast numbers of people serving whole life sentences and five times the homicide rate of the UK.

Meanwhile Norway, with its notorious 'soft' prisons and shorter sentences, has homicide and recidivism rates far lower than both the US and the UK.

If your interest is preventing crime, the last criminal justice system you'd want to emulate is the US.

But that is not the interest. The interest is to fantasize about all the nasty things they could do, or methods of killing people.

Either for enjoyment or to pretend they have power over people.

Bellfield hasn’t shown any remorse. The idea he’s going to sit in a cell and suddenly regret his conduct is laughable. He loves stories being printed about him. He likes people reading the details of it. He gets off on it.

Nasrine · 06/08/2025 20:36

bombastix · 06/08/2025 20:18

But that is not the interest. The interest is to fantasize about all the nasty things they could do, or methods of killing people.

Either for enjoyment or to pretend they have power over people.

Bellfield hasn’t shown any remorse. The idea he’s going to sit in a cell and suddenly regret his conduct is laughable. He loves stories being printed about him. He likes people reading the details of it. He gets off on it.

Bellfield is a psychopath and will never change. I'm glad he'll never get out. I agree that the interest in him is prurient and a bit disgusting. I'd like to never hear his name again. I'm sure his victim's families feel the same.

YouWillFindMeInTheGarden · 06/08/2025 20:42

bombastix · 06/08/2025 18:56

Basket weaving. Fondant fancy making, embroidery and ice sculpting should also be on the list.

Along with deportment, public speaking and raffia work

They do modelling with matchsticks, I’m often impressed with what they create! I’ve no patience for that

SerendipityJane · 06/08/2025 20:44

Nasrine · 06/08/2025 20:14

Of course it's different when the victim is connected to you.

But the justice system isn't a personal vehicle for the vengeance of victims and their families.

Well, that's a philosophical point about the relationship between the subject and the state. It's part of the social contract. We forswear personal vengeance (because that way anarchy lies) in return for the state undertaking it for us.

Part of the defining characteristic of a state is it has a monopoly on violence.

YouWillFindMeInTheGarden · 06/08/2025 20:47

Nasrine · 06/08/2025 20:36

Bellfield is a psychopath and will never change. I'm glad he'll never get out. I agree that the interest in him is prurient and a bit disgusting. I'd like to never hear his name again. I'm sure his victim's families feel the same.

He’s changed his name

he's part of the brotherhood now according to that article with all the benefits that brings

Nasrine · 06/08/2025 20:50

Gross

SerendipityJane · 06/08/2025 20:57

YouWillFindMeInTheGarden · 06/08/2025 20:42

They do modelling with matchsticks, I’m often impressed with what they create! I’ve no patience for that

Ian Brady used to transcribe books into braille. When they took the machine away they refused his request to be euthenised

RigIt · 06/08/2025 21:13

The punishment is losing his liberty. You don’t have to feed them gruel and make them stare at the wall while they are in there. It’s also important to keep prisoners occupied or it has a detrimental effect on mental health across the prison population, and can lead to violent episodes and other issues with controlling the prison population as a whole - idle hands and all that.

You are looking at this far too simplistically.

XenoBitch · 06/08/2025 21:14

YouWillFindMeInTheGarden · 06/08/2025 20:42

They do modelling with matchsticks, I’m often impressed with what they create! I’ve no patience for that

Yep, I have a friend who has done time in prison. Years after he came out, he still does some matchstick modelling. He made a beautiful gypsy caravan. He said one of his inside mates made a huge tree house.

RigIt · 06/08/2025 21:20

Just to add giving prisoners small “perks” like a slightly nicer meal once a week or short access to fifa, is another way of controlling their behaviour. If that’s all you have to look forward to, then you are more likely to be well behaved and easier to manage, less likely to harm prison staff or other inmates. When you lock a load of dangerous people up altogether you need to ensure you have ways of managing them.

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 21:23

XenoBitch · 06/08/2025 21:14

Yep, I have a friend who has done time in prison. Years after he came out, he still does some matchstick modelling. He made a beautiful gypsy caravan. He said one of his inside mates made a huge tree house.

Was his mate a lifer?

XenoBitch · 06/08/2025 21:25

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 21:23

Was his mate a lifer?

Yes, he was.

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 21:26

XenoBitch · 06/08/2025 21:25

Yes, he was.

Tree of life ! ( sorry!)

XenoBitch · 06/08/2025 21:27

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 21:26

Tree of life ! ( sorry!)

Oh dear 😆

wizzywig · 06/08/2025 23:09

ilovesooty · 04/08/2025 23:30

I can think of at least one Victorian prison which isn't on that list.

I think it's police stations. Not prisons. Unless the poster means the observation panel in the door?

Lavender14 · 06/08/2025 23:40

Allseeingallknowing · 06/08/2025 19:27

I can understand the victims or their relatives being sickened at the thought of the criminal having enjoyment in their lives!

It's completely understandable but victims and their loved ones also aren't a monolith and will have a wide range of reactions/ feelings about the idea of this which are all very valid.

This is also the reason why victims and their loved ones aren't the ones to set the terms of punishment.