Do inmates get so many luxuries?

Prisons and Controversy over Inmate Discipline

Because of their lavish treatments, current prisons are causing controversy over their roles in instilling discipline among prisoners. When completing probation, inmates are given some privileges. Unlike traditional jail facilities that focused on changing inmates’ attitudes by harsh environments that jeopardized their wellbeing, today’s jails are marked by lavish amenities to the point where inmates have stopped plotting escapes. Prisoners’ luxuries vary from the amount of time they spend sleeping to the working arrangements in their halls of residence and feeding systems. Particularly, the evolution of prison structures and the rise of human rights services have improved prison services by championing for rights of inmates hence promoting luxury. Despite establishing prisons to correct offenders by exposing them to both physical and psychological torture, current prisons are endowed with luxury concerning facilities and services that customers are accorded when serving a sentence.

Argument For

Today’s prisoners have too much comfort provided by facilities they use when serving a jail term. Wozniak explains that modernization of rehabilitation centers has led to creating cells that are well ventilated and insulated to provide a cool environment (Wozniak 318). Unlike previous rehabilitation centers that detained many prisoners in smaller cells leading to spread of airborne diseases due to congestion, today’s prisons are designed to accommodate a maximum of two inmates in a cell. These luxurious conditions favor inmates by giving them an opportunity to spend quality time as they recollect and interact with a fellow inmate without disruptions or fear. Decongesting prisoners provide comfort because it prevents them from sexual harassment, bullying, and diseases that characterize prison life.

Additionally, prison cells are fitted with televisions that are subscribed to premium channels to give inmate comfort through diverse entertainment. Particularly, British prisons provide inmates with R-rated and X-rated movies that they watch whenever they are in their cells (The Telegraph 1). The range of entertainment provided by these correction facilities are source of comfort because they drown prisoners into the worlds of fantasy and make them forget problems facing them such as long sentence. Copes, Heith, Hochstetler, and Brown confirmed that many prisoners have confessed that their lives in prison are better than the life they lived in freedom undertaking various activities in life (187).

Continually, prisoners have too much comfort in prison because of quality time they have the whole day. Significant hours of a prisoner’s day are spent in the cell as they await food and leisure time. During this period, prisoners are at peace because most of them are either watching television, sleeping or conversing with each other. Leisure time is the most enjoyable time in prison because they are allowed to engage in a range of sporting activities. Copes et al., explain that Prisoner’s leisure time provide much comfort because they are allowed to participate in various activities of their choice (186). Among the comforting activities that inmates engage include weight lifting for body builders, basketball, netball for interested prisoners and singing competitions where inmates obsessed with music display their creativity. Inmates also have an option of reading in the prison’s library during leisure time hence comforting their minds against invasion by their problems.

While previous prison system meant the end of the road upon conviction, today’s rehabilitation facilities provide prisoners with an option of choosing a professional course to take while in detention. Among the professional courses that are at the inmates’ disposal, include computer technology, construction classes, and various mechanic classes. The facilities further allow prisoners who were convicted while in school to continue with their courses if they are offered in the prison’s various learning units. Despite the advantage of engaging prisoners through work and education to help them finish their sentences successfully, the process of educating them is expensive because it wastes taxpayer’s money on criminals who should be regretting their deeds bitterly behind bars as explained by Dogbeh (24).

The education given to prisoners is too much comfort because the money should be used to sponsor government schools to educate students and other national developments rather that wasting them on criminals that should be paying bitterly for their offenses. Further, prisoners are exposed to psychologists, psychotherapists, and preachers who help them to modify their behavior to conform to societal requirements. These professionals are paid by the government to visit prisoners on specific days to offer guidance in various confines in life. Despite the benefit of counseling prisoners and exposing them to the word of God to guide them, the process is luxurious to them because they should be punished and not being begged to reform. The counselors and preachers should be assigned to the various institution of learning and health, social centers to help those in need such as students and patients.

Argument Against

In spite of the comfort that prisoners receive in their particular correctional facilities, the inmates are also faced with a hard life that is characterized by struggling for survival. Most prisons are associated with inadequate facilities that compromise prisoner’s lives. Davis Mark describes that Prisoners are housed in poorly ventilated houses that do not support the efficient circulation of air (64). The congestion in the halls and lack of fresh air leads to spread of various infectious diseases among the inmates. The common diseases that compromise lives of inmates are TB and skin infections due to frequent body contacts. Lack of food is also a hazardous condition that promotes discomfort in prison. As a form of punishment, prisoners are fed half-cooked food that is served in small portions. Many prisoners have succumbed to diseases due to lack of proper nutrition to support their immune system.

Further, the hard labor, physical punishment, and long sentences they are awarded in courts of law make prison life worse than death. Capital offenders who are locked in maximum prisons are punished by using different methods preferred by the judge during conviction. Among these punishments, include physical and electronic whacking, being isolated in cold dungeons for several days without food. Many prisoners do not survive these chambers and are buried without their family’s knowledge. These hazardous deaths mentally torture prisoners who were close to the victim as well as those whose moments in the deadly places are nearing. Sexual harassment and torture that is common rehabilitation centers also make life prison a nightmare to most prisoners. Specifically, first offenders are raped and physically abused if they resist. These devilish acts affect victim’s personality and emotions leading to withdrawal and sickness.

Conclusion

Prisons are meant to rehabilitate prisoners by putting them under severe conditions to enable them to identify their mistakes and reform. However, the current prison system promotes comfort among prisoners by accommodating them in improved structures that are fitted with entertainment devices such as Television sets. These structures support entertainment hence making them forget their problems and live happily in prison. Prisoners are also allowed to access luxurious activities such as weight lifting, boxing, basketball, and reading during leisure time. These activities are enjoyed by most prisoners hence violating prison objectives that should instill good behavior through hardship. The prisoners are also allowed to engage in professional courses that are meant for abiding citizens. However, the hardships in prisons such as lack of enough food and various forms of abuse make prison life hell.

Works Cited

Copes, Heith, Andy Hochstetler, and Anastasia Brown. “Inmates’ perceptions of the benefits and harm of prison interviews.” Field Methods 25.2 (2013): 182-196.

Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press, 2011.

Dogbeh, Audrey, et al. ”Field study of the indoor environment in a Danish prison.” Building and Environment 88 (2015): 20-26.

The Telegraph. Sloping Out Case: Life of Luxury in British Jails. The Telegraph. Published on September 26, 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8789794/Slopping-out-case-life-of-luxury-in-British-jails.html

Wozniak, Kevin H. ”American public opinion about prisons.” Criminal Justice Review 39.3 (2014): 305-324.