Prison Poll

If you read the BBC news you will know prison officers around the country are striking due to pay conditions. In order to do this officers need to 'lock down' the prisoners. ie. lock the door on their cells. By doing this it takes less than 10% of the manpower to run the prisons;

to me it seems to me this is fair enough. Prison should be prison not butlins! am I alone in thinking this?

poll? erm..... oops

A lot of American prisons run lockdown 23 hours a day, they're privately run and often the prisoners are doing some sort of repetitive productive work if they're not locked up in their cells shanking and buggering each other.

So, save 90% of the costs and leave them locked up. Then the remaining prison wardens can have a decent pay rise and the inmates can learn why they're actually in prison.

Originally Posted by WRCSixtyThree

So, save 90% of the costs and leave them locked up. Then we can lay off most of the prison wardens, thereby ensuring the amount that scum cost the taxpayer is kept to a minimum and the inmates can learn why they're actually in prison.

Now now chaps, God forbid one of you loses your bike on a bend while goin a little too fast and kills some poor sod out for a walk, you might find yourself soon becomin one of those "scum"

Originally Posted by somnus

Now now chaps, God forbid one of you loses your bike on a bend while goin a little too fast and kills some poor sod out for a walk, you might find yourself soon becomin one of those "scum"

Also bear in mind that probably 3% of the prison population have been wrongly convicted. You also have a number inmates who are on remand and have not been convicted of any crime.

[Biker Biggles]

And of those who are in there probably more than half should be somewhere else,maybe repaying a debt to society(or even an unpaid fine)in a far more constructive and useful manner.
What really interests me about this strike is how there can be a no strike agreement with the prison officers without a counter balence that says the employer must pay the increase as laid down by the review body.If you sign up to this and let the employer decide how much to pay you,you surely give up all your negotiating power?

In all things, don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Originally Posted by WRCSixtyThree

So, save 90% of the costs and leave them locked up. Then the remaining prison wardens can have a decent pay rise and the inmates can learn why they're actually in prison.

Just because the prisoners aren't locked up 26 hours a day with jailers getting all medieval on their asses doesn't mean that prison is a pleasant place. Anyway, bare in mind that the vast majority of prisoners are going to be released eventually. Turning them into angry hate filled lunatics wouldn't help.

Also, the government isn't capable of saving money. They'd just find some other way of wasting it. Like directing it into the NHS... to be spent on management consultants that aren't needed.