What is your perception of prison life?

[Varus]

I'm doing research for my dissertation for uni and wanted to know how people generally percieve what life is like in prison. The media usually portrays it as being easy, what do you think?

[NORMANTHEDOG]

it is not easy varus,i can assure you.

[mullein3]

its a holiday camp paid for by the tax payers..i know someone who works in the prison service and she said its cushy inside..it should be a place of punishment..without any luxurys..

[jedda]

It can't be bad can it, look at the numbers that reoffend, if it hurt in any way that wouldn't be the case.

[Ward-Minter]

The only prisons that are worth their weight are military prisons. The rest I can assure you are like Butlins with better food.

[noxlumos]

Prison is not easy or cushy. It's not all computer courses and days out at the seaside as doubtless Mullein and Ward-minter appear to think. It's degrading and lonely and it makes you unable to function or care about anyone.When you go in, even for a non drug related crime, you are strip searched, deloused and locked in a very small room for up to 23 hours per day.Anyone, shy, quiet, odd, small or different is bullied as a matter of course.Theoretically you are allowed books to read, but in practice often not allowed to the library so they bring them round on a trolley, a smattering of paperback rubbish suitable for the majority.Depending upon your catagory you are allowed to socialise certain evening for 2 hours, which consists of been plonked in front of a TV showing whatever inane soap happens to be on at the time and during "association" the vulnerable have their phone cards taken from them ( their one precious link to the outside world) so many choose to remain locked in their cells.Visiting is more upsetting than can possibly be described.It's unbearable for people not to come and even more unbearable if they do.Many people become suicidal, self harming is common and drugs are brought round every night to help you sleep ( commonly called "muppet juice").

It's my firm belief that for lesser crimes prison does far more harm than good as it really hardens people. I believe that it should be used only as a punishment for murder, rape, paedophilia, child abuse, violent mugging etc.Those committing lesser crimes would benefit far more, and so would society, by an enhanced form of community service whereby they put something back to the society they have taken from.It's horribly true that prison can turn one into an unfeeling, uncaring monster who is unable, not unwilling, to fit back into society. Prison makes more criminals than it ever cures, probably that's why the re-offence rate for petty crimes is so astronomic.

[Ward-Minter]

Noxlumos, Have you ever been to Butlins??

[noxlumos]

I will however agree with you Ward-Minter that the food is better than Butlins, if that answers your question.

[libertie]

Must admit I've never thought of prison life as being easy.....I always imagine it to be a place full of dread and fear! Imagine not being able to just open your front door and go for a walk or go to the pub / cinema or hug and kiss your children goodnight! I suppose for many people in prison that doesn't matter ~ but for the majority of us it does and that is why we obey the laws of the land no matter how much some of us would like to take the law into our own hands!

[flashpig]

Prison life is easy. Trust me, I have a friend who watched 'Porridge'.

[NORMANTHEDOG]

As i expected.you all havent got a clue,have you.prison is made out to be cushy,well i can assure you it certainly is not.In the late seventies i spent 18 months in prison for a crime i did not commit,and after a hell of a lot of appealing was found not guilty,the police were found to have fabricated evidence to convict me and my business partner of fraud,when all alomg it was the company secretary.If there was any other way of contacting you varus i would gladly answer your questions to help you in your studies.Please dont think,porridge,bad girls,and all the crap they put on about prisons is a true picture,I can assure you all it is not like that in any way.

[o8sp]

sorry to hear of your wrongful imprisonment normanthedog. i am sure things have changedalot since the 70s. they all seem to have satellite tv etc in the cells these days. also they have a warm roof over their heads and 3 meals a day which is more than alot of pensioners can manage.

[sp1814]

Thank you noxlumos and normanthedog. I never really thought about what it must be like to be in prison - I, like most people are completely ignorant of what prison does to someone's soul.

[mullein3]

norman the dog..i am sorry you were put in jail even though you were innocent it must have been very frustrating...but at the end of the day prisons are their to punish people "guilty ones" and luxurys should not be allowed..and i dont recall mentioning days out at the seaside..but now someone else has mentioned it i do believe it happens..on day release..and no it shouldnt be allowed..if prison was more harsh people may think twice about reoffending!!

[noxlumos]

Well the next time some teenager hangs themself in prison Mullein, I'm sure you'll give their family the benefit of your wisdom, doubtless gleaned from the pages of the Daily Mail.

What you are advocating is sadistic and your use of the word "frustrating" with regard to Norman's situation shows your complete lack of understanding about what is actually involved. The man wouldn't have been "frustrated" he would have been completely desolate I should think (frustrated is when you can't find the right change for the parking meter or something similar).

If you want to lower the crime rate you need to rehabilitate otherwise you just get a large amount of very damaged and angry men let loose on society, the result of which should be obvious even to the meanest intelligence. Is that what you want?

[mullein3]

noxlumos..their is no need to be so aggressive i am entitled to my opinion..when i said he must have been frustrated i meant it as " being innocent but not able to prove it" that would be frustrating..and when he was in jail it was tougher then than it is now!! and why do so many reoffend if they have been rehabilitated? answer that one?...prison should mean punishment they have done wrong and must pay the price..no one asked them to commit crimes it was their own free will decision..so their for they must face the reality of prison life...their are to many do gooders around and often the victim of crime does the prison sentance not physically but mentally..

[Ward-Minter]

OK I will say it straight as others seemed to have pu55yfooted around the issue.

Prisons are cushy. If they are demoralising, degrading, lonely and scary then good. The prisoners deserve it. They are there for a reason, because the judge/jury or local magistrate has found them guilty of an imprisonable offence. I hope they do suffer. That is the point.

Rehabilitation is for Rehab centres and the Probabtion service. Prison is for punishment. Full stop.

If people are wrongly accused it is not the prisons' fault. If the police are too blame , that is a separate issue.

Prisons should hark back to Victorian days with absolutely no rights whatsoever for the inmates.

When some 19 year old car theif or burglar hangs himself inside who cares? Not me.

[searchme]

Hear hear Ward-Minter,we shouldn't forget that prisoners are all volunteers.

A major omission from today's prisons is the scaffold

[noxlumos]

Ward-Minter, words fail me.Whatever made you so hateful that you can rejoice in the death of a young person no matter what they've done? Every prisoner suicide is someone's child, partner or parent, you really should think on that and imagine it's one of your own, or do you think no-one from your family could possibly end up in prison? I suspect the families of the Birmingham Six and many other wrongfully convicted people thought the same thing.This could happen to you and I guarantee that you'd not be so viscious and sanctimious when you came out if it did.

[Ward-Minter]

Noxlumos, you have missed my point entirely.

If I were one of The Birmingham 6, Guilford 4, Renault 5 or indeed you as a wrongly convicted person, I would not blame the prison service. Surley it is the Police to blame (Though I do have 100% faith in them).

And yes, nobody from my family will ever go to prison. It is not hate my learned ABer, it is the rights of decent folk who are the victims of crimes on an everyday basis.

One death of a burglar albeit a son, a brother etc is nothing compared to the heartache, the misery, the loss of faith etc that such a felon will cause to thousands of families over a criminal career.