Prisoner rights

[TheNoNamedOne]

What rights do you think prisoners should have who have been convicted of a felony crime?


Should they have a right to religious scriptures/books of their faith?

Should prison officials go out of their way to arrange worship services for the various kinds and visitation from rabi, priests, preachers, imams, etc...

Should they have the right to news media of the outside world?

Should they have the right to exercise equipment?

Should they have the right to the diet of their choice based on their religious or moral beliefs?

Should they have the right to education?

Should they have the right to be jailed individually in single cells or forced to have a roomate?

Should officials care about isolating the violent or predatory gay ones from the heterosexual ones?

Should they be able to smoke or buy cigarretes or other tobacco products?

Should they have the right to socialize with other prisoners?

How about to get married while imprisoned or conjugal visits?

Why should we even allow for others to visit them?


I am sure there are other questions of rights as well, and feel free to add any for discussion if you wish?

Whether you believe these should be rights or not, do you think they should be provided? Why or why not?

[themadscientist]

I already have a plan
I have actually moved away from support of the death penalty.
Yes prison should be unpleasant. Not torture of course but no creature comforts. The idea is to make it a place you want to leave. Hypothetical, I am placed in charge of the prisons and we assume I get what I request without resistance.

Basic prison cell will be standardized
4' x 8' x 8' dimensions, concrete walls, ceiling and floor.

wall mounted flip up cot and flip down table, and a steel toilet and sink.

All personal possessions must fit in a plastic footlocker 24" x 12" x 12" not to include educational materials like textbooks.

No photos may be left displayed, they must be put away in the morning.

No reading material is allowed except prison-supplied educational material, no audio or visual formats, only print material.

Uniforms will be simple and have only a single breast pocket and designed in such a way that concealed weapons would be readily visable. They would also be pink.

Prisoners would be allowed to sleep from lights out at 9pm until revelie at 5am when the very bright prison lights turn on.

Prisoners will have one hour to clean and prepare their cell. They will make and stow their bunk and put away all personal possessions.

at 6am the cell doors open and they will stand outside their cell for visual inspection by guards then they will be marched to breakfast. breakfast runs from 6:30-7:00

Breakfast, in fact all meals, will be be the minimum daily requirement for an average human. It will not taste particularly good nor will it be bad, it will keep you alive. There will be no utensils any solid food will be in bite-sized portions and a peice of bread will be used to scoop up food. The drinks will be water, and water, if you don't like that there is always water. Trays will be made of a flexible plastic that can not easily be used as a weapon and tables and benches will be bolted down. Socialization will be allowed but closely monitored.

Now we have a choice for our prisoners, this is where they get rehabilitated at best, serve their time in full at worst. If they choose not to participate in the programs available to them they return to their cell until lunch. At that time they will need to prepare their cell and submit to inspection as before and march to lunch, dinner the same.

At 12 the prisoners will be reassembled for lunch

Those that choose to take advantage of it will be evaluated. Any prisoners with substance abuse problems, mental conditions will be provided councilers to aid them on the road to getting better. Prisoners otherwise ready to go will be provided access to counsilers who can help them determine the best route for them to become a sucess in their life. It must be individual case by case, no two people have the same needs. A full battery of vocational programs, GED attainment and career counceling to those that demonstrate the truly want to better themselves. These activities will occur in either the first or second half of the day. The other half of the day will be occupied working in some prison industry. This will ensure that the prisoners are earning the benefits theya are being provided and the products produced will help pay for some costs.

They prisoners will be assembled for moement to lunch at 12:00 Lunch runs from 12:30 to 1PM.

The prisoners will cease work or classes at 5PM and be assembled for dinner which will run from 5:30 to 6:00

Prisoners will return to their cells and be released to go to shower in small groups and in a random fashion not block by block. They have the time from roughly 6:30 until lights out at 9:00 to take a quick shower and do their coursework if they are trying to learn.

Yard time is a privelage not a right. Prisons will not have windows of any kind in detainee areas. Sunlight will be a precious commodity. If a prisoner behaves they will be allowed in the yard for a few hours two times a week in small groups again randomly selected. Prisoners who act incorrectly will not get yard time. penalties for any infraction will be severe, respect for the guards will be given, instructions followed without question. Of course staff will need to be well paid and well trained to keep them from being a problem, esprit de corp and professionalism will be expected from the guards, they must lead by example. Solitary as in a cell with no lights 24 hours a day for a determined amount of time will be used.

Prison should be a place to rehabilitate and at the same time a place you never want to return to.

[socalheart]

I think that prisoners convicted and serving time for a felonious crime have no rights beyond the basic human rights of nutrition and health, living conditions and such. All things given beyond the basics are priviledges.

[DougP]

Here's another suggestion. Forewarn people. When men and women hit that magical age of 18 and become legal adults have them sign a form. In the form lay it out for them that if they commit a crime(felony) and go to prison for it, then they would give up the right to be treated like a free citizen. The would lose all the creature comforts that they have obviously taken for granted. Perhaps if they are aware of the pitfalls that await them they'd think twice before breaking the law. With the amount of people we have in jail right now I'd say there isn't a real enough deterrent.

On another note if I were to see someone getting their hands lopped off for stealing or their tongues cut out for lying I'd definitely walk the straight and narrow.

[TheNoNamedOne]

Should prisoners have the right to condoms supplied to them by the State through taxes?

[Isaak Brodsky]

What taxpayer would want to fund and protect some convict's hard on from an STD assault?

[TheNoNamedOne]

Who wants to fund some convict's hard on?

Well, that answer sure is a very limited and shallow view of the question.

Ian, 95% of all prisoners will one day return to society. Many are in there for white collar crime or even more petty offenses. Many also have families and girlfriends they will return to. Don't you see the inherent danger in a breeding facility for AIDS that could trickle out and destroy innocent lives?

The social costs from those destroyed lives would be much more expensive than providing a few thousand condoms a month per prison.

There is no comparison if you really think about it.

Edit to add: You may want to compassonately consider the innocent people who sometimes get incarcerated through poor lawyers or inept judges or frames ups from crooked police and overzealous prosecutors. If an alarming number of innocent people can be put to death, then it goes to reason that an even alarming number of innocent people can be simply incarcerated for hard time.

[Isaak Brodsky]

Yeah, you're right, I was just being tongue-n-cheek on the condom issue.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaiit ... that didn't sound right, did it?:barf:

[Asshat]

Yeah, you're right, I was just being tongue-n-cheek on the condom issue.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaiit ... that didn't sound right, did it?:barf:

Now when I am sarcastic, the rank and file don't "get it." Go figure.

As I read the answers thus far, I see a more basic question that needs to be answered: (Sorry to hijack perhaps?)

Are prisons for punishment, or rehabilitation.

How many deathrow inmates have been released due to innocence discovered with dna evidence? 100 plus?

[hankypanky]

Having my old man in prison for killing a police officer, drunk driving, I guess i can comment on this. Prison is punishment. You get 2-3 squares a day, a bed, job that pays cents a day and a exercise yard. Thats it. No TV, Internet, movies, etc. The only way they learn is by hard knocks. Some people want to go back to prison just for the benefits. Shave their heads, march them around, military style. The guards who befriend and bring in drugs, put them in the same prison and let god sort them out.

PS I have nothing against my old man. He divorced my mother when i was 5. We've met over the years, but this was like his 15th drunk driving conviction in 4 states. Even after having his license revoked.

If i can stop drinking here on the rock due to a 100,000 fine and jail time, other can too. I just won't stop drinking.:D

[DougP]

Should prisoners have the right to condoms supplied to them by the State through taxes?

I wonder how many of them would actually take the time to put one on before the usually shower gang rape:barf: If they can get drugs and cigarettes into prison I'm sure condoms shouldn't be an issue.

[Go-Shay]

Prisons should be harsh. It should be a place you do not want to goto or go back to. On the death penalty- if you purposely seek out people to kill or rape you deserve to die. That having been said the problem is the justice system is to screwed up and there are too many innocent people being sentenced. To answer the question: prisoners should not have any rights period.

[Asshat]

Having my old man in prison for killing a police officer, drunk driving, I guess i can comment on this.

My little brother (just turned 41) was recently released from prison. The system he was in was all about fixing what was wrong, and not so much punishment.

[hankypanky]

Well my pop got life without parole so not much fixin there. He was hibitual so the mothers against drunk driving went after him as a national case. Was even on barbra walters 20/20 with an intertview that shocked the hell out of my ex-wife. Press contacted my brothers but i was in another part of the country at the time.

[Isaak Brodsky]

How many deathrow inmates have been released due to innocence discovered with dna evidence? 100 plus?

Fantastic question! - which would/should launch a new thread about Death Penalty and ethical implications.

Now that you ask this question, it seems to lead to another question, like, during sexual assaults of man-on-man in, say, shower rooms, do you think that the assailant will reach for his Trojan and jam it on his horse before he commences to assaulting the gates of his victim??

[Asshat]

Well my pop got life without parole so not much fixin there. He was hibitual so the mothers against drunk driving went after him as a national case. Was even on barbra walters 20/20 with an intertview that shocked the hell out of my ex-wife. Press contacted my brothers but i was in another part of the country at the time.

There is too much shame in what my brother did for me to say.

As far as your pops...DUI's? Ok, alcholism...but isn't that a disease? I got in a fight because a dude threatened my family. I became temporarily insane, and the dude fell against a table when I shoved him.

Manslaughter, and I'm out in three with a life time prescription of mood enhancers.

[hankypanky]

Yeah, it's a disease. But come on 4 different states multiple convictions. It don't take a rocket scientist to figure you shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car. Just a matter of time. And all the years I used to drive F#$%ed up. Thank you jesus i never had a bad one. Straight and narrow now for sure!!

[Asshat]

Yeah, it's a disease. But come on 4 different states multiple convictions. It don't take a rocket scientist to figure you shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car. Just a matter of time. And all the years I used to drive F#$%ed up. Thank you jesus i never had a bad one. Straight and narrow now for sure!!

Me too. And with bikes too. I don't know why I am still alive, although my body is fairly busted up from going through windshields, slaming against cars, etc.

Your pops was made an example of sounds like, and that is no justice.

[hankypanky]

Well, hate to say it, but someone has to be the 1st. Of course, no one wants it to put shame on their family. But hell, he's been raisin' hell since he was a cannon cocker with 12th Marines here in the 50's! So he never slowed down, it was bound to happen. Luckily me and my brothers learned a lesson from it, me a little late!:old: