tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post9059360074741226851..comments2023-10-25T09:49:43.089+01:00Comments on BEN'S PRISON BLOG - Lifer On The Loose: Whether to Riot - part 3prisonerbenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14923205052778958118noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-25297680442799394252010-02-04T18:53:47.594+00:002010-02-04T18:53:47.594+00:00I'm sorry this only has the thinnest link to y...I'm sorry this only has the thinnest link to your current blog topic but something just dawned on me.<br /><br />If her majesty insists on keeping you at her pleasure then why can't they let you go into Young Offender Institutes and talk to them about non-violent conflict resolution?<br /><br />Or am I employing more common sense than the Prison System jobs-worth's currently posses? :PGainahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08495953058626656188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-26251749198316195722010-02-04T17:47:27.961+00:002010-02-04T17:47:27.961+00:00Agree with Charles. I hae just visited prison an...Agree with Charles. I hae just visited prison and heard the person I visit say 'since I came to prison I have been introduced to lying, dishonesty, deviousness and cheating'. He has learned this from staff and prisoners - what a shambles - this person would not have lied, cheated or been dishonest before he went in!!<br />What a wonderful example of 'rehabilitation'!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-66421444160371838162010-02-04T14:55:29.951+00:002010-02-04T14:55:29.951+00:00@wigarse
Yes. The r-word has been discredited - b...@wigarse<br /><br />Yes. The r-word has been discredited - because prisons conspicuously fail to do it yet go on hollowly saying it’s their raison d’être. If we mean by it an imprisoned person coming back into the world with a habit of taking responsibility for him/herself and a disposition to respect the rights, property, etc of others, then prisons must urge and require their guests to act like citizens in their daily lives in captivity – a rigorous matter of rights and responsibilities, not hoodie-hugging. To treat them as they do, with vindictive disdain, is no way to engender personal or social responsibility, nor to give them a sense of the best they could be. Society has a duty to itself to think this through rigorously, (this isn’t just a matter for Ben and his kind). If the system is breeding angry social exiles, it is because it is worse than no good. What Ben’s proposing here can only have remedial value. In any case, human rights are inalienable. Let’s start from that premise.Charles Cowlinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06757185376546920527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-63142235417713780872010-02-04T08:30:04.593+00:002010-02-04T08:30:04.593+00:00@Richard
I had a very revealing conversation with...@Richard<br /><br />I had a very revealing conversation with a friend of mine over whether the point of prison was punishment or rehabilitation and it took us a solid 25 mins to realize that we meant different things by the term. While I meant anything that worked to reduce recidivism, he just meant some sort of well-meaning hoody hugging that he automatically assumed would never work.<br /><br />The word "rehabilitation" seems to have become linked in the public psyche with failure and waste of funds.<br /><br />While I agree we need to convince people that giving prisoners greater access to the law would aid rehabilitation, I think we need to convince people that is a good thing first!Wigarsenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3184990032979540229.post-19005985440866159462010-02-04T01:13:01.698+00:002010-02-04T01:13:01.698+00:00It might be far easier to make your case political...It might be far easier to make your case politically, and therefore allow a smoother course legally, if you can persuade at least a proportion of the free population that such changes will assist in rehabilitation. That is a benefit they can far more easily understand than the concepts relating to prisoner rights so carefully detailed over the course of many posts in this blog.<br /><br />Reading this blog has persuaded me of both the moral case for expansion of prisoner rights (I am not always in agreement on precise details, but in practice pretty close) and of the benefit to wider society of improving the standing of prisoners. The latter will always carry more weight in that wider world.Doubting Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16507892426345836143noreply@blogger.com