AIBU to have little sympathy for prisoners during the heatwave?

[PenelopeJoanSterling]

Metro article about prisoners and the heatwave, but if they behaved they would not be in prison ?

Im all for caring for humanity as a whole, but in terms of prisoners they did commit crimes and get locked up.

Apart from the most serious of offenders, noone is going to prison for a first offence. Most of the prisoners have umpteen chances and haven't taken them.

They didn't give a shit about their victims comfort did they or their right to life.

Op mentioned not being sympathetic because prisoners are hot in the heatwave. She didn’t Say they don’t deserve food water and access to hygiene facilities.

Different topics all together. This was about the heatwave and not feeling sympathy for prisoners because they are feeling hot.

because the prisoners who are removing child abusers from the world are doing everybody a favour and making it safer for other children.

the drug addict, non violent, shop lifter doesn't?
how many of those are actually in jail, or if they ever have, for more than a few days? 😂In the UK at least.

and we don't keep them in a shed with a tin roof in this country. They have the basic minimum and more

When you see the state of some properties riddled with mould, I am not sure prisoners have the worst set-up either.

Warden on the other hand, should have basic standards of working.

I love this post and agree so much. The longer I am on this earth the more I agree with this. Yes there are ruthless or evil people in there, but also many many vulnerable young men some with additional learning needs, that faced nothing but adversity and rejection and got sucked into a life of crime. They are the ones who get caught and serve the time. Those that put them in that position are more likely living in mansions in Dubai or wherever laughing at them

Perhaps the lesser offenders could arrange their offending so they would not be in prison during the heat wave season?

But I don’t think anyone is saying they deserve to die. They have food, water, sanitation, somewhere to sleep.

obviously there’s limits on freedom and it’s probably not as comfortable as other places in the UK but I think most of the non-prison inhabiting population are ok about not being sympathetic to it being uncomfortable in a heatwave when most people outside of prison are also uncomfortable.

They fill women's prisons. But there's a lot in men's. For those saying it's easy to keep out of prison, I'm sure the postoffice owners thought that. One gave birth in prison. I hope the maternity section has ways to cool down, but a recent report found that conditions were worse in women's prisons and contact/visiting was less often, because of a lack of will to make things ok. The likes of the grooming gangs victims end up in the justice system and just can't get out. Most women in prison have a background of childhood abuse or CSA. How does not having basic care build their self esteem enough to even start to try to get out of the poverty/criminality cycle?

I believe the punishment is a lack of liberty, not to be sweltering to death. Prisoners who get too uncomfortable are a higher risk to staff.

I hope prison is unbearably uncomfortably hot and horrendous for the man who is serving time for raping and beating me as a child, filming it and sending it to others across the world for money, then! Claiming he had adhd so should be let off.

Nah. I hope he burns.

Most prisons I've been in are disgusting not in a heat wave, so Christ knows what they're like now, the state owned even more so (the private ones have different contractual obligations like 16 hours out of cell and engagement in purposeful activity -so often have big atriums and open indoor spaces for learning etc, whereas state owned can keep people in 23 hour bang up for months, showers once a week). Lots of issues with drains, rats and all sorts of other grim things. I've been offered jobs behind the gate and have never taken one.

How much time have you spent inside prisons?

The punishment is having your liberty taken away and going to prison. Prisoners should not be punished in prison and should have their basic needs met. It must be horrifically hot in a cell, and we should not be thinking that's ok, they deserve to be hot, that is punishing them again.
All hospitals and schools should have adequate cooling systems but so should prisons. When i read some of the comments on this thread I despair for humanity.

Many people who are innocent have been in prison. Just as if you're rich/from the right family with the best lawyers, you're much more likely to get away with it if you're guilty, surely?
And unless we're changing our status on rights, part of the punishment is not inflicting pain/suffering, which will affect prisoners with health conditions disproportionally, and make riots more likely.

Thankfully someone who murdered a fellow prisoner wouldn't be allowed to do that.

Depends on how you define normal people I suppose.

My empathy is with their victims.

There are several issues at play here:

1. It's already a nightmare recruiting prison staff without making their lives even worse.
2. The likelihood of the general public rooting substantially increases when it's hot for an extended period. I would strongly suspect that similarly in prison, the likelihood of substantial misbehaviour also increases.
3. While I think most of us can understand the desire to use prison as a means to punish, if we step back and think what we want for society (presumably less crime in the future) presumably what we actually want, even if it's a much less primal desire, is for prisoners to be rehabilitated. And that means treating them humanely, as well as teaching them skills, coping techniques and all the other things prisons should and don't do.

🤔

I agree they should if needed, but not before schools or hospitals.

Yep 👍

So how much experience do you have of the inside of prisons? Have you missed the fact that a lot of people in prison are on remand and haven't been convicted of any crime?

Many prisoners need empathy. Many haven’t had the same upbringing, stability, love or health others have. Many have had to contend with awful circumstances throughout life.