Misc > Debate

Prisons and our money

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SirBlaziken:
I found out that today (at least in America) that taxpayer's money goes to making upper class criminals' jail all nice with stuff like flat screen tvs and 5 star chefs. What are your thoughts on this?

Lord Raven:
Where did you learn this Oh Enlightened One

Besides it beats the holy hell out of the death penalty. You'd be surprised at how much more it costs to kill them than imprison them.

SirBlaziken:
Thanks for the sarcasm. :dry:

Turner:
I can't speak for the US but I think a lot of this 'PRISONS NEED TO HAVE BREAD AND WATER AND NO ANYTHING' mentality is kind of ridiculous...to a degree.

Prisons are pretty bad places with murders, rapes and gangs. Obviously murders and rapes are truly awful, but gangs are especially bad because they are literally counter-intuitive to incarceration as a whole. As long as there are gangs in jail, you are just grooming criminals for them to commit more crimes when the time is up. Not to mention all the stuff that goes with having gangs in prisons. The 'flat screen TV and 5* chef' stuff sounds way overblown for me but I'm not entirely against the idea of keeping them well occupied while they're in there. Ideally they should be taught skills to help them into work when they get out, maybe it sounds like a soft option for people who have done truly terrible things (And I believe some of those people shouldn't be let out at all) but it's pointless to punish them out of (what essentially boils down to) spite for years and then send them back into the world with a fresh chip on their shoulder.

Maybe I am digging a little deep here, but there will have been unique circumstances for every crime. Should someone who has murdered under provocations be in the same institution as someone who kills for the heck of it? I don't think so. I think there needs to be a lot more separation in jails depending on the specifics of the crime. I know it's not quite this extreme but most white collar criminals shouldn't be stuffed in with the rapists and murderers, those skills should be made the most of.

Lord Raven:

--- Quote from: ShinyBlaziken2000 on May 13, 2013, 23:08 ---Thanks for the sarcasm. :dry:

--- End quote ---
The entire first sentence was sarcasm, although I did more or less ask you for a source.  The entire second paragraph?  Actually very true, if you look at various death penalty arguments that are based upon funding then you'll see that everything involved in execution actually costs close to a million dollars.

If you average funding for prisons per prisoner, then you'll see it's around a 30K/year investment.  Would you rather have someone in jail for 20-30 years or execute them?  The math tells me I would rather have them locked up for 20-30 years, especially considering there's always the chance of innocence and reform.

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