Prison book ban ruled unlawful by High Court

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 05, 2014, 4:01 PM UTC

SteveGerencser wrote: post #16

ceejayoz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Governor of New York proposed giving prisoners in essence a community college education while incarcerated. Outcry from the public and lawmakers made him shelve the concept, despite studies showing massive drops in recidivism from such things.

As they should. If you are going to give away a college education it should probably start with the people not in prison and even earlier before they begin to commit crimes. I understand the desire to rehabilitate people, but when those in prison have more services and resources handed to them than the general population gets then there is a serious problem. If we started earlier in the education process and young st…

Post by jackhammer » Fri, Dec 05, 2014, 4:04 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #18

SteveGerencser wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As they should. If you are going to give away a college education it should probably start with the people not in prison and even earlier before they begin to commit crimes. I understand the desire to rehabilitate people, but when those in prison have more services and resources handed to them than the general population gets then there is a serious problem. If we started earlier in the education process and young st…

> If you are going to give away a college education Now there's an idea. Do both, give education away to everyone, including inmates. During my parents younger days, here in Australia, a university education came at no cost to the individual. Sounds like a reasonable sort of scenario I reckon.

Post by Elrac » Fri, Dec 05, 2014, 4:07 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #12

mabbo wrote: post #11

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it: if the purpose of prison is to rehabilitate people, then we're going about it in a very strange way. Lock people away in a cell for a decade, deny them a lot of basic human rights (like books) then when they're good and messed up in the head from it, let them lose on the public. If they re-offend, well, that's clearly a sign that they are just a bad person . Best lock the…

The Governor of New York proposed giving prisoners in essence a community college education while incarcerated. Outcry from the public and lawmakers made him shelve the concept, despite studies showing massive drops in recidivism from such things.

Post by kahirsch » Fri, Dec 05, 2014, 4:18 PM UTC

bainsfather wrote: post #8

Shivetya wrote: post #4

The one issue brought up which I think it a legitimate concern is, how do you insure the book is not used for improper purposes. Those would be but not limited to, concealment of prohibited objects, drugs, and messages? You can screen for some, but I would expect all parcels to have some limited form of search. I would tend to think a better option would be to fix the availability of library services to prisoners, pe…

In the uk, prisoners get sent other parcels, they of course are screened. No real reason for not allowing books. This ban was just the prisons minister playing to the tabloid press. "a better option would be to fix the availability of library services to prisoners" - alas, this is not even a bad joke. In e.g. high security prisons, you might get to visit the library once every 4 weeks. If (or these days, more often t…

Post by arethuza » Fri, Dec 05, 2014, 4:40 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #18

SteveGerencser wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As they should. If you are going to give away a college education it should probably start with the people not in prison and even earlier before they begin to commit crimes. I understand the desire to rehabilitate people, but when those in prison have more services and resources handed to them than the general population gets then there is a serious problem. If we started earlier in the education process and young st…

> If you are going to give away a college education Now there's an idea. Do both, give education away to everyone, including inmates. During my parents younger days, here in Australia, a university education came at no cost to the individual. Sounds like a reasonable sort of scenario I reckon.