den Otter wrote:
>
> ----------
> > From: Michael S. Lorrey <mike@lorrey.com>
>
> > > Apart from that, your
> > > prison system (and in fact just about all the prison systems of the
> > > so-called "civilized" nations) are simply barbaric. Little better than
> > > concentration camps, really.
> >
> >> Well, we tried going the route that european prisons are: pretty much forced
> vocational education and psych treatment. Problem was, the recidivism stats showed
> that it was a failure here. Here, the stats seem to bear out that if you make prison
> life as unbearable as possible, a crook is far less likely to want to go back to
> such an institution, so they took out the weight lifting equipment (reduces guard
> costs, esp. medical bills) they are taking out the college courses, etc. except at
> the minimum security resorts.<<
>
> My basic objection against the current (Euro & US) prison systems is that:
> 1) They allow physical contact between inmates, which opens the
> door for rape, beatings, murder and other nastiness. Ironically, the
> worst, most hardened & violent criminals have the easiest time, while
> the lesser offenders suffer under their regime.
> 2) The prison officials have way too much power, which results in
> situations as described above. In other words, the prison system
> is, just like the rest of the legal system btw, pretty much arbitrary.
>
> The solution: automated prisons (afaik, Greg Burch had a great
> post about this once). One inmate per cell, no physical contact
> between inmates and only highly monitored contact between
> guards and inmates. For good measure, every square inch of the
> prison should have camera surveillance, with direct and well-protected
> links to independent controlling organizations, at least some of which
> should be private (non-government), lawyers and maybe even the
> prisoner's relatives. All recorded data should be stored for at least
> one year, to serve as evidence in the rare case of some mishap
> (example: was a suicide *really* a suicide?).
>
> Educational programs, psychiatric/medical treatments should
> be optional, but simply keeping the offender out of the general
> population (in the case of murderers, by means of capital
> punishment) is good enough as far as I'm concerned.
>