Letter to the Editor
No vacation
Published Monday, November 24, 2008
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!Nov. 21, 2008
To the editor:
This is in response to “Keep potlatch,” in the Nov. 21 letters. Sharon states how unfairly the inmates are treated. Seriously! Hello? They’re in jail; it’s not supposed to be a vacation. I totally agree with the assistant warden.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
Dude whatever. It's TRUE, it's called jail for a reason and they are there for a reason.
ahhh....a woman after my own heart.
totally agree! Just because they are allowed access to information does not mean that access has to be cable television and high speed internet let alone eating better than people who live the straight and narrow with modest means and dont know where they will be eating this Thanksgiving.
If it sucks, that is why you are there! Dont like it? Dont go back!
Definitely gets an Amen here. Maybe if jail wasn't so nice, it might serve as a deterent to crime. I know alot of people who's quality of life improve when they get there.
the only thing cruel is that they send the inmates out of state. we need more of our own prisons.
Polarmar,,I agree we have plenty of room here to build new prisons, it would save the money it cost to send them out of state. (create jobs also) But I totally agree with the fact that they should have it tough when they go to prison, so if they ever are parolled, they will think twice before they do anything that will send them back.
But those inmates have rights that need to be protected (dripping with sarcasm).
... yes they do have rights.
The right not to be a nuisance to society.
The right to be kept just barely alive while in prison.
The right to stay away from my stuff when they get out.
Ginger you should run for Mayor. Sharon you only have to look in your backyard/prison parking lot to find who to blame. If visitors who bring the food to the potlatches where more concerned with visiting their families and less with hiding drugs and contraband in the food then mabey they would still be having them. The state went out on a limb and allowed families to bring items into a secured area with the agreement that the families would not put hide items in the food that could hurt or kill another inmate or staff member, case in point the bag of marijuana stuffed into the moose meat stew. Where was that in the recipe book? I am sorry that a few criminals who are still on the outside of the fence screwed it up for the inocent ones behind the fence.
I have said it before either use your super evil powers for good or run faster than the cop and don't get caught.....better yet just be good and don't come to jail.
How hard is it to not break the law???
Haha. Thanks, Ginger, for saying what the rest of us probably didn't have the guts to say! I agree completely.
Well then, if inmates are given every advantage they are on the outside, then I am going do something to put my self in jail. And, I'm part Irish. I'll demand good whiskey, a keg of Guiness and a leprauchan to keep me company, and I'll refuse to wash with anything but Irish Spring..!!
they get it pretty good in there, actually. cable TV, internet, and food. what more do you need?
First off I’d like to say that where and the heck does she come up with her train of thought. Should the jails treat prisoners like little babies, and bend over backwards for them. If it was up to me, I’d have them busting rocks all day with a hammer, and feeding them baloney sandwiches 3 times a day. If a prisoner is treated with kid gloves, that person is prone to doing the same things that got him into trouble in the first place. If a person is treated hard, he might learn not to do it again and not want to take a chance of ending up back in jail. I bet that if it was her brother that was beaten to death, she would have a different view on the issue. Criminals gave up their rights when they committed the crime. I say they need to be treated with a strong hand, and made to feel the pains that their victims and victim’s families go through everyday.
Cots and pink underwear work for me; ain't cruel and unusual punishment. I agree with polarmark. Sending them out of state to do their time sux.
Jail time isn't supposed to be fun, DUH.
No practicing of religion either. None of it, no christianity, no islam, no buddhism, etc. No bibles, no korans, no watchtower tracts, no rosary beads, no crosses...oooh and none of those funny little beanies some folks wear for the sabbath. Nope, no solace or chance of grace for any of them. Oh and make them all eat fried bologna, I hate fried bologna.
Take a jar full of bees, shake it up, and then unscrew the top. The US prison system does exactly that, with predictable results. With an 80% rate of return, the system is designed to fail, argument over.
They get free medical and dental. No wonder they have their next crime planned before they even get out. Prison is not suppose to be a rest stop.
AKBOSS - most of these folks aren't differentiating the prisoner or the crimes committed much less taking into account that a percentage of people in prisons are innocent or incarcerated for nitnoy stuff that hurts no one and costs us (taxpayers) a boat load of money to support. (My previous posting was tongue-in-cheek)
Since there may be an innocent person in jail, we should make jail a nice place to visit and even comfortable for the inmates. When we send the people to jail for breaking the laws that don't hurt anyone, they should be comfortable because it was us taxpayers that made the dumb laws to begin with. WRONG!
If prison was the most miserable place in the world our prisons would not be overcrowded. We would either have smarter criminals or less of them willing to risk truly "hard" time. Cut out the conjugal visits, and put them on road building crews. When they are allowed to rest, it isn't time to go to the weight room, they sleep at the end of the road and eat beans and rice. Anyone caught trying to escape will be shot. At the end of your sentence, you get 90 days of intense job skills training and if it is your second time in, you don't get out. That would take care of the innocent people and give those that need lifetime supervision what they deserve.
ONAPA - This taxpayer didn't make any of the "dumb laws". Some dumb ass lawyer/politico made them.
I have no problem with prisons being less than homey or requiring prisoners to work a full days labor but I also think they should have the opportunity to better themselves if they are willing to make the effort. Those that do have a better chance at staying out of prison and becoming contributing members of society.
I would also prefer that we had longer sentences for the more severe crimes and stop putting others in jail for drugs and prostitution. Just legalize them and tax them, they aren't going away and it creates a black market that only benefits criminals and the DEA's unsuccessful "drug war" (which only wastes the taxpayers money).
Wait_for_it,
Prison is not an institution of higher learning. Make them work hard 18 hours a day, teach them to appreciate a job well done and give them the opportunity to better themselves at the end of their sentence, and not throughout their incarceration. Criminals don't have a right to a college degree program. They get 90 days of intense training at the end of their sentence, not unlike military boot camp.
I don't ever want to see the likes of you hanging around my kids. Push your pro drug agenda somewhere else. You may not think twice about getting high and driving or selling to kids or turning them into criminals to pay for their addictions, but advocating criminal behavior does that. Your attitude on drugs is a menace to our society. "It's a victimless crime", is a myth that criminals love to sell to their next victim. I will not be victimized!
Wait_for_it,
"No practicing of religion either. None of it, no christianity, no islam, no buddhism, etc..."
I suspect you were practicing some of the "tongue in cheek" that you mentioned a little bit after this post but I also wonder if some actual feeling were not present in this remark. I suspect others feel this way even if you don't. The fact is, however, that the "No practing of religion" has already been done - in the Hanoi Hilton among other places. Didn't work there and it won't work here either.
As a Christian, I suspect that more than a few inmates have "gotten religion" through the years in order to "lessen the load". Those whose conversion is real know that "getting religion" does not absolve them from guilt (or remove any of the consequences that are due because of their past actions). In a few cases it - for Christianity at least - religion allows them to "own up to their actions" (to admit what they did, feel and show remorse for their past actions, and change the way they live for the remainder of their time). You may not agree with me but I think anything that allows a hardened, vicious criminal to turn his or her life around and lead a decent life is worth the time of a few Christian "missionaries"...
Inmates don't have rights, they have wrongs. I think that's enough said.
For all those innocent people currently in prison, they know that once they get proven right, they'll get that multi-million wrongful imprisonment settlement and live just fine. For the rest of them, bologna, rockbreaking, and road repair sounds like a good deal.
As for shooting them in the head, I'd prefer a 3 strikes rule of sorts, 1st strike was an oops, time to learn from your mistakes, 2nd strike is a knucklehead, you really need to straighten out, 3rd strike BANG! No need to waste any more money on that one.
I think the people complaining about prisoner treatment are either biased because they have family/friends on the inside or they're worried about their future. If you're scared of the time, don't do the crime. If you don't break the law, you have nothing to worry about.
A good book to check out:
"Aint nobody's business if I do, The consequences of consensual crime in a free society"
There are many people still in jail for things that are not even crimes any more.
Doug...Why "Christian"? It may be your way...BUT...It is not the ONLY way. If one should be allowed, then all others should be allowed.
Matthew 25: 41-45: "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you,as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' "
Apathy does not equal victimization. There's no goats in prison - only wolves. DBD knows what this means.
If you go to prison, you should be herded into cages and sustained at minimal cost to the US taxpayer. If you come out of there looking like "human veal," well then so much the better.
fishdancer,
"Why "Christian"? It may be your way...BUT...It is not the ONLY way. If one should be allowed, then all others should be allowed."
You're right - it is not the only religion; it is 'exclusively' the only way to heaven in the opinion of Christians but there are other religions that teach the tenents of good citizenship and various aspects of treating our brothers and sisters some part of the "Golden Rule".
I agree with you that they should all be given equal opportunity to the inmates of our penal institutions. I also think, however, that Islamic 'missionaries' have been spreading the virulent Wahabi brand of the Prophet Mohammad's Religion (and gaining Jihadist Warriors within the walls of our own Prison Systems). That's reprehensible.
Hey if we treat them so bad then maybe we should also send them on vacation, maybe Hawaii or Mexico. Those people probably eat better than 90% of HARD working Americans. I work, stay out of trouble and perform community service out of the good of my heart, yet I do not have cable. BUT, if I wanted to see cable TV I guess I could do some offensive and get thrown in jail. I'd eat STEAK, dont tell me they dont have steak once and awhile, cause I KNOW they do. I mean some of the people in there do things intentionally so they can have shelter and good food. But they are FAR from being deprived of anything. I mean they get health care, does every in Fairbanks get health care. They got it good, wanna see the ones being abused, look in the mirror.
If we're going to send them "on vacation" we could borrow some ideas from the Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpiao and put them up in tents, and make them wear pink underwear and eat balognia sandwiches. Or, we could revive the old French Penal Colony idea and send them to French Guiana (better known as Devil's Island). Pick a place full of crocodiles, poison snakes, and insects and surrounded by sharks. Work them 16 hours a day with almost no food and bad water.
No, wait we can't even do that to the scum at Guantanamo Bay...
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.