When I talk to people (or read most papers) about the issue of prisons (or more widely punishment for a crime) its near a definate that someone will go 'prisons should be tougher, they are like five star hotels now'. I usually reply back to this by saying a) no matter how many tv's and wii's I had I still wouldn't want to be in prison and more importantly b) this is one of the more nicer ways for prison authorities to weaken and even stop any form of politics arising in prisons. TBH though my understanding of the history of such developments is abit shakey so can anyone enlighten me on when these changes begin to come into force? Wasen't there big riots in UK prisons in the 70s and 80s?
Jan 17 2008 09:20
Jan 18 2008 11:51
i once watched a documentary about palestinians in israeli jails. some of them were in there for the smallest of crimes, they are allowed to study in there provided that they learn in hebrew, some of the prisoners went in there and couldn't even read but they were coming out with a degree - most of them studied politics:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7896
they have a television but they don't watch it - instead preferring to read, many of them wished to make a career in politics when they were freed.
Can comment on articles and discussions
I think the changes started quite a way back when they started giving prisoners bread and water. Just joking about that of course but tbh I'm not sure that the telly's and stuff like that are designed to stop any politics from arising as for the most part afaik prisoners have to buy them themselves using money that is deposited into their accounts from outside. I think that uprisings are curbed more by technological advances than anything else. I mean, take a look at those supermax prisons... you can't fart without it being noted and they also do a wicked job of segregating groups based on race and religion, and have total control of the amount of flow of prisoners at any one time. Of course someone will post a youtube clip of a prison riot in the US but I'm talking about the admittedly little I know about such prisons here.
all the best.
gregg.