When did imprisonment become more about comfort than punishment? Seriously, a person in jail should not have the right to complain about cockroaches, and he should certainly not be paid $1000 in compensation. Think a situation like that is too crazy to be true? Well, you’re wrong.
This isn’t really an unusual thing, either. Inmates in American prisons may suffer from overcrowding (due to the reluctance of judges and juries to slap death penalties on criminals, even where it’s still allowed) but they get better food and health care than a sizable portion of the American public. They’re even catered to if they want vegan diets. Uh, what? If you commit a crime, you deserve every bit of unwanted mystery meat you get. Punishment, remember?
If we can’t execute murders and rapists, they should at least be put in a place where they can reflect on the crimes they’ve committed instead of reading books, interacting with other dangerous criminals, or working out. Imprisonment is supposed to be a deterrent first, a punishment second, and a good thing never. If people know they aren’t going to have a good time in prison, they’ll be less likely to commit a crime. If they commit one anyways and get caught, they shouldn’t like being in prison. The ultimate intent there is that they don’t want to come back. Unfortunately (for law-abiding citizens, not for the criminals), prisons aren’t necessarily horrible places to be. Sure, you’ve got to put up with the gangs and riots and stuff like that, but having a bed and three square meals is more than some people have outside of prison. There’s something seriously wrong when a murderer can have a better life than a Vietnam veteran living on the streets of Seattle. Hell, “seriously wrong” is an understatement.
I suppose the main reason inmates have it so good is to avoid the appearance of cruelty. Amnesty International is good at playing that card. But take a good look at some of the people in prison. Why do they deserve better than the people they raped or tortured? I don’t care about the “turn the other cheek” sentiment. Monsters don’t deserve lives. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
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A favorite quote of mine is “you can tell a lot about a society by how it treats its criminals”. I think compensation is certainly too far, but I still endorse the idea of clean cells and decent diets for most petty criminals.
I can understand basic amenities with perks for good behavior, but our top priority should be law-abiding citizens. At any rate, people should realize that breaking the law will carry serious consequences.
It is a tricky issue. Prisons are there to punish, and it is frustrating to think that some prisoners get treated better than a lot of people not in prison. Yes we need to make sure the criminals are punished–and punished in a way that really let’s them know they’re punished–but we have to be careful not to mistreat or coddle. Hell, serve them two meals a day, or every other day. That way they would not starve, but they would appreciate the food that much more. Yeah, and take away special diets unless there are allergies involved–after all, it’s not their fault they can’t eat legumes.
I agree also that it would be nice if we spent as much money on the destitute and our war veterans as we do to keep people in prison.