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I've always wondered what would happen if we enumerated the common events of prison life in sentencing. You are hereby sentenced to: Segregated eating Daily v

I've always wondered what would happen if we enumerated the common events of prison life in sentencing. You are hereby sentenced to: Segregated eating Daily verbal abuse The regular disruption of your personal possessions Being physically assaulted once for every 5-7 years of confinement Being seriously injured through assault once for every 10-15 years of confinement Being raped once for every 15-20 years of confinement While these are extrapolations from prison statistics, the uncertainty makes the sentence all the more chilling. Prison is, in the US at least, a cruel institution, but this is rarely discussed when we talk about what it means to give someone a 5 year sentence or 10 years. Confinement is terrible, but, for many, it is not the worst part of the punishment.

beedogs 13y ago
The thing is, I could probably find a pretty substantial percentage of Americans who wouldn't have a problem with any of that, as long as the offender "learns his lesson" or some other similarly-trite authoritarian nonsense.
- gizmo686 13y ago
  I don't have any sources handy, but I believe their is much evidence that prisoners do learn very good lessons about violence. Unfourtuantly, those lessons are in how to be violent, which (I think) results in prisons being the best way to make a non-violent criminal into a violent one.
  - wavefunction 13y ago
    Prisons are like professional conferences for committed criminals where they get to swap tips and tricks and network.
  - yardie 13y ago
    A childhood friend was sent to juvenile detention on a statutory rape charge (not a rapist, they were both 14). After 2 years he emerged to be a worser human being with a huge, justifiable, chip on his shoulder. By 16, he was dealing in cocaine (not weed, cocaine, he gained the connections for that in JD), prostitution (addicts will do anything for blow) and weapons. And Scarface, the movie character, became his idol. We used to be backpackers (the rapping kind, check urban dictionary) and he transformed into everything that was wrong with hip-hop. And I blame everything on how all the adults completely snowballed a 14yo.

beedogs 13y ago

The thing is, I could probably find a pretty substantial percentage of Americans who wouldn't have a problem with any of that, as long as the offender "learns his lesson" or some other similarly-trite authoritarian nonsense.

gizmo686 13y ago
I don't have any sources handy, but I believe their is much evidence that prisoners do learn very good lessons about violence. Unfourtuantly, those lessons are in how to be violent, which (I think) results in prisons being the best way to make a non-violent criminal into a violent one.
- wavefunction 13y ago
  Prisons are like professional conferences for committed criminals where they get to swap tips and tricks and network.
- yardie 13y ago
  A childhood friend was sent to juvenile detention on a statutory rape charge (not a rapist, they were both 14). After 2 years he emerged to be a worser human being with a huge, justifiable, chip on his shoulder. By 16, he was dealing in cocaine (not weed, cocaine, he gained the connections for that in JD), prostitution (addicts will do anything for blow) and weapons. And Scarface, the movie character, became his idol. We used to be backpackers (the rapping kind, check urban dictionary) and he transformed into everything that was wrong with hip-hop. And I blame everything on how all the adults completely snowballed a 14yo.