ADN

Well I was watching 60 minutes the other day ( i do watch it sometimes ) and there was this great story, not really all that well done but the concept I found was quite interesting.

You see here in New Zealand when a convicted criminal is sent to prision and is mis-treated inside prision by the prision officers they can get compensation by applying for it and if proven they can get compensation in amounts of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So really the tax payers are not only paying to keep these violators of the streets but also when the state thinks they have been mistreated who are only there because they didnt adhere to the law or did some injustice to someone else, violated someone elses personal rights etc

Although the people whose personal rights have been violated can claim some of the money of these convicts but should they really be paid such huge amounts of money ?

The prisions around here are much more like hotels, they have underground heating, swimming pools, million dollar gym, first class basket ball courts, they get 3 course meals and can actually get free extramarual study done if they choose to. I mean seriously how much more does soceity have to give to them and if they are mis-treated even a little bit they can claim hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So should they be paid out for the mistreatment? and why?

I think part of it is accountability on behalf of the prison officers. If they mistreat the prisoners, it shows that they aren't any better than those that are behind bars. Hopefully it's an incentive to treat the prisoners well so that they go out changed and not wanting to hurt more people.

That is pretty fucked up how nice the prisons are. That's nicer than where I'm living now

If you really want accountabilty on part of the prision officers why not introduce a rule saying if they mistreat a prisoner then such and such would happen to the officer and possibly lose their job, why is there a need to pay out the people who have actually commited the crime.

The people they hurt or abused dont get anything when they went to prision and the only thing they get is knowing that the streets might be a little safer with them behind bars and whats the use when they are there and are actually getting so much money for it.

definitely not an Office Space federal pound me in the ass prison...

Crime and punishment these days amazes me...Seems as if prisoners are coddled more than the victims...If it were up to me, every prisoner that is able would be right the fuck in Iraq, fighting for time off the sentence....You wouldn't even have to worry about them trying to escape, they couldn't hide...

Of course, the argument is that they are there to reform...But more than most, people that go to prison for say a level 3 type offense, often times come out quite capable and willing to pul off level 7 or better offenses...

On top of that, they have fucked up rights when they get out, so getting a decent job is close to impossible with a record, which means the entire system is fucking retarded and counter active...Repeat offenses must be at an all time high...

I wouldn't want to be in jail, still however...Nice or not, there is always the high risk of you getting a bit of that anal rape, so...Who knows...

I'm not so sure about criminals representing our country is such a great idea. Hell even the French Foreign Legion, which was notorious for harboring former criminals now does background checks (a felony and they'll probably reject you).

The criminals I think we really have to worry about are the violent ones and those convicted of sex crimes. I have a feeling that a sizable portion of the US prison population is probably convicted of drug related offenses (don't quote me on this I've done no such research on this topic) where to be honest (look out liberal speak coming) I doubt prison is helpful in getting people clean.

That being said, there's not a high turnover rate for prisoners (this is bad). Unless they're savvy enough to get their records sealed there's a HUGE social stigma attached to going to prison. Honestly, if you were the owner of a business would you hire someone on parole or to someone who answered "yes" on the section of their application that asked if they had ever been convicted of a felony? I'd hate to say that I probably wouldn't which probably makes me some sort of hypocrite but oh well.

The US Military frowns on crimals for good reason-- now using them as cannon fooder (ie roll up a truck full, unload give a knife, and'"say checkout the hill, while we set up bivouac here and wait for the Air Cav." sounds good but carreer crimials with real weapons in Urban warfare, Uhhh NO!

Until prison is unbearable and worse than living in the real world -criminals wont reform they curently have no reason too.

Maybe in the future we could freeze them like the movie Minority Report? or hook em into some VR world, so that they are permanently separated from society.