For another view we can look at :-
"Murderer and kidnapper Michael Sams has said he is better off in prison than he would be living as a free pensioner."
"He said he had better living conditions inside Whitemoor jail, Cambridgeshire, than many people on the basic pension.
In his letter, Sams wrote: "Have you ever seen an OAP inmate in tatty clothes or scruffy trainers? Not a hope! "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/engla...ire/
6568737.stm
I'm sceptical he's in much of a position to judge, given that he hasn't seen the outside world since 1992.
But John b - while he may not have been physically 'outside' since 1992, that doesn't mean that he hasn't had access to the 'outside' by other means, such as TV, newspapers and even the internet.
Some might argue that this is the problem!!
Well, in the sense that he's doubtless read the press's insane distortions of truth (of which the interview with himself is the latest in a long line) I'd tend to agreee.
Wait - you mean prison isn't a 20 year party!?
Damn! Couldn't you have told me before I murdered my wife?
Is Sams perhaps making the point that pensioners deserve better? If so, I'd agree entirely.
The POA is one of the surviving bastions of Luddite trade-unionism. It is also led my some remarkably unintelligent bullies. But if the POA is currently embarrassing the Government then that is no bad thing.
On the mental health issue, I have asked mental health practitioners how is it that some ( insert current PC phrase ) mental cases have 24/7 care in residential units with a staff-client ratio of 3-1 while others end up in prison ?
The reply is always that it is down to luck, good or otherwise ( though being male does not help ).
To imply that inmates recieve breakfast in bed as part of some all inclusive package holiday is wholly disingenuous. The only reason for it can be that it is operationally more convinient for the prison to serve it this way, granted it may be that staff numbers are so low as to necessitate the need for keeping the population in their cells rather than have an exodus to the canteen every morning. To suggestthat prisoners have in some way negotiated this as part of their terms and conditions of incaceration is just plain stupidity.
Conversely it is wrong to dismiss the statement that there are a number of inmates that do not want to escape their palatial surroundings.But this bears no relation to the context in which the POA misconstrue the reasons. It is quite simply that for some inmates it represents a stndard of living that is far better than the squalor that they live in on the outside. For a period of time they are warm fed and clothed. The supplied tv is not one that they can sell for a "bag of brown" and they are afforded some sense of community rather than being ostracised and scorned as they would be in mainstream society. To those that feel that prison should be a place more representative of the victorian slop house regime where the inmates live on bread and water and sleep on the floor, it would be better for the courts to let them go free as this is how some of them live anyway.
Remember a criminal record is not just for chritmas ... its for life!
I agree, Smuggler.
It should also be note that a lot of these 'luxuries', television being a notable example, are (only when earned by the prisoner of course) an excellent means of keeping the prison population quiet and manageable.
No bad idea given the large ratio of prisoners to guards, and the problems with over-crowding.
I agree prison is no place for those with mental health issues.
However, has anyone been to Hollesley Bay? It has the atmostphere of a holiday camp and the view to match and I would have happily stayed the night there. It really does have the play stations and dvd's and coffee making facilities on tap. A lovely inmates garden too and acres of land to wander lonely as a cloud over in a spare minute.
Perhaps the media were writing about this "prison" because my local over crowded dismal prison is a million miles away from Hollesley Bay. I know which one I'd rather be held in.
It perhaps should be pointed out that the playstations may soon be a thing of the past. Apparently they can only have PS 1's (for those not in the know the current version on sale is a PS 3) which they no longer make, and it's getting increasingly hard to get hold of the console and the games for.
Apparently its because all the newer games consoles have internet capability.
Elvis JP
You are right that withdrawal of TV gives staff a powerful disciplinary weapon. In Young Offender establishments removing the right to wear your own trainers is a powerful sanction, as you have no social status in prison-issue footwear.
In my weirder moments, which seem to be more frequent these days, I have strange thoughts ...
I wonder if any maker of trainers has thought of marketing a special brand of trainers bearing the logo "ASBO".
I'm hurrying off to register a trademark before the kind gentlemen in white coats get back ...
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