John
On Tue, 09 Mar 2004 15:44:38 -0500, graywolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Well, unfortunately you can not talk about the US Penal System. It depends a lot on the state. Ranges from federal system country clubs for naughty US Senators (those are the places the news media like to show), to chain gang camps in the south. It used to be claimed that the cheapest way to get a college degree was to get a 4 year sentence in Oregon. Others are places you would not put your neighbors dog, the one that growls at you and craps on your lawn.
I understand Florida now runs a "send your convicts to us" service, making big money keeping other states prisoners in unventilated concrete block buildings (anyone who knows what a Florida summer is like would have no trouble calling that cruel and unusual punishment) thrown up with convict labor. Medical care runs from quite good to almost none. There was a big movement for prison reform in the late 60's and the 70's, but that has died out. Whenever the news media reports a crazy crime 3000 miles away everyone starts yelling about codling criminals.
Unfortunately there are some people who have to be locked away for societies protection. However it is only about 10% of the people now locked up. The prison systems are a big profitable business for many and they are not going away any time soon. But it would be nice to require them to treat all the imates as human beings.
--
mike wilson wrote:
If the US "penal" system is anything like the UK's that will entitle them to nothing but the very best medical care of all types - like _immediate_ emergency care, mental health care on tap, etc. So maybe it would be good for them...
-- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
