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.

I care about human beings not suffocating themselves in the heat in overheated prison cells. Not everyone in prison is a bad person, they’re cramped at the best of times. Funnily enough countries who treat prisoners better turn a lot of their lives around.
A lot of people are in prison because they’re ill. I heard in a podcast recently that there is a high number of female prisoners are in for not paying fines they cannot afford to pay.

No!

I couldn't care less. Let them suffer. They should have thought about this before they decided to become criminals.

Another one who hasn't taken on board the number of prisoners on remand.

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by professor Philip Zimbardo is an interesting read

A lot of people in prison have been sexually and physically abused as children, brought up with little education, found comfort in drugs for the first time in their life. The spiral starts, a lot are to be pitied. Not everyone in prison is evil.

This. People who have no power, and are at the mercy of the state, literally at his Majesty'spleasure, should be cared for. The glee some people feel at someone else's pain and discomfort says an awful lot about them.

That doesn't have anything to do with the original post.

Not to mention all the people living in flats that can't be cooled down. I'm sure it's miserable for people in prison, but it's miserable for a lot of people and frankly, prisoners are at the bottom of the list to prioritize for help as far as I'm concerned.

I am sure you would change your tune if someone you cared about was incarcerated. And, for the umpteenth time, not everyone in prison has committed "heinous crimes against others".

Also not true.

Separate issue.

Research shows that 84% of incarcerated men have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE). 46% report experiencing four or more ACEs, a rate four times higher than the general population. These early traumas—such as abuse, neglect, and domestic violence—are frequently linked to prolific or violent offending.

I think those of us that have experienced few childhood adversities should maybe reflect a little on how life could have turned out if we had.

It's true in the vast majority of cases. To be sent to prison as a first time offender, it has to be fairly serious crime.

You are not just being unreasonable but really horrible. I can’t imagine how your mind works.

Most offenders don't "decide" to commit to a life of criminality.

Then nothing will ever change.

I have spent years working in the system. You are wrong.

Change in what? The conditions of people with poor mobility stuck in flats they can't afford to cool down?

As is this thread is about prisoners, I thought you may have realised I was referring to your last sentence - "frankly, prisoners are at the bottom of the list to prioritize for help as far as I'm concerned".

Of course not.
Some people who murder or seriously assault may have never had a parking ticket before.
Others are ill and steal from stores, not a victimless crime but not a violent one, some people have a stay in prison for fines, again a crime but no human victim directly involved.
You’ll find people who work in this environment see very sad circumstances all the time, knowing that if the prisoners had a different foundation they’d be a very successful person if they weren’t chained up in trauma, the type of trauma most people couldn’t imagine in their worst nightmare.

Fair enough, I thought what I was getting at was obvious.

But seriously, on the subject of prisoners suffering from the heat- I actually do think it's important to be considered, and I'm glad that there are people like you who prioritize prisoners' welfare (I'm honestly not being snarky). However, I do also think there an awful lot of people suffering in the heat- for example, I can pretty much guarantee that for every over heating prisoner there are ten seriously ill people on hospital wards suffering. The prisoners also have the great advantage of being on general much younger (which massively affects the ability of the body to cope with heat). There has to be a prioritization of public funds, and I think prisoners should be at the bottom of the list.

Trauma can have a catastrophic impact on life. There is so little MH support available too. It’s tragic in so many cases.

What about the wrongly convicted , the mentally unwell, substance users or those who got forced into crime.

Well obviously murder and serious assault are very serious crimes which are going to get a first time offender a prison sentence. I don't really understand what you are referring to with ill people stealing from shops without a human victim- people being imprisoned for that is vanishingly rare.

I agree about most prisoners having had difficult and often traumatic lives, but I'm not sure of the relevancy tbh