going to prison

[The Rivet]

Is going to prison such a big deal?..........well I will tell you. No, it's not such a big deal if the sentance is under 30 months. The only thing you miss is c**k for girls and pu**sy for boys and of course, the company of the opposite sex! Plus a pint or two!

 

[Aadam]

Your avatar

I didn't do it. One of the mods keeps doing it. I've removed it several times now but they keep putting it back. I've no idea who it is either, they wont even own up to that. I have given up removing it. I'll let the petulant child have their fun.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I've served 2 stints in prison, 8 months and 15 months and believe me i hated every second. The biggest thing is the boredom. 23 hours in a cell with no TV or Playstation (regardless of what the Daily Mail try to tell you). I witnessed beatings on a daily basis by the gangs which operate in every prison and also the screws who would pick on anyone they liked. You get let out your pit of a cell for 1 hour a day where you went into an area full of nutters who were all spoiling for a fight with anyone who glanced in their direction. Oh and the food was shit too. It was a massive deterrent for me to stop attempting te be a gangster, yes.

Kept your buiness name then

 

[The Rivet]

Is going to prison such a big deal?..........well I will tell you. No, it's not such a big deal if the sentance is under 30 months. The only thing you miss is c**k for girls and pu**sy for boys and of course, the company of the opposite sex! Plus a pint or two!

I have to add an adendum to my OP..........I guess prison can be a very big deal, bullying and violence is very rife. You always live in fear of attack regardless of what you have been convicted of. People wanting whatever you have got, ready at the cell door the moment you are unlocked, it aint no picknick but, deterrent, NO!

 

[Phat Baz 68]

Well looks like bianca is on here way ther again

"here way ther" ? Pissed are we ha ha ha ha !!

 

[1066familyman]

Open prison is one thing - but do not underestimate the higher categories. It is not a holiday camp.

I regularly used to visit a category B prison for my job and can confirm the regime inside is hard and has a forboding atmosphere which most punters would blanch at. You can often sense the tension from hundreds of inmates banged up for hours on end and a significant number of them have drug problems, life threatening illnesses and psychological issues. Thats before you encounter the hospital wing and others who are under suicide / self harm watch. I have a lot of admiration for the staff coping with that day and night.

It wouldn't do any harm for young offenders at risk of a custodial sentence to get 24 hours 'work experience' inside just to give them a taste of what awaits, maybe a few might just think again.

Good idea. With this group it may well act as a deterrent for some, but if they have no other prospects in life, it probably still won't work.

I spent 3 months in Wandsworth in the mid 90's, having previously spent 1 month in Lewes a couple of years earlier - both were for refusal to pay the poll tax. Lewes wasn't too bad, though by no means a holiday camp, but Wandsworth had a real culture of fear, and that mainly came from the staff ! Lots of the inmates in there had drug problems and all manner of issues. Some were banged up up to 23 hours a day with up to four in a cell. Saddest of all for me was the prevalence of illiteracy and the number of fellow inmates I spoke to who had come through the care system as kids and had been in and out of prison on numerous occasions. My conclusion was, that for the inmates and society at large, prison simply doesn't work.

 

[Muzzy]

I've never fancied finding out what it's like so I have kept on the straight and narrow.

Repeat offenders don't seem to mind it, it seems?

Personally, I don't think I could ever look my parents/family in the face if I ever copped a stretch.. To me, I would have let them down badly. They put so much effort into bringing me up to have respect for others that they would take any criminal behaviour by me as a slur upon their ability as parents.

 

[Cian]

I've visited a mate in prison and I (very, VERY occasionally) have to service equipment in the same prison. Even ignoring the criminal record, etc, the small amount of time I've seen the inside (as a visitor or with an ID card and guard with me) would put me off ever going in.

 

[Captain Sensible]

Losing your job, having no prospects when you come out and going through fear while you're in there. No thanks.
I got locked up (only) for 27 hours in a cell and charged with something and believe me, shitting in a metal bucket is not fun. It knocked some sense into me. I never want to go inside, I agree potential offenders should be sent to the worst prisons for work experience.

 

[Big G]

I have to add an adendum to my OP..........I guess prison can be a very big deal, bullying and violence is very rife. You always live in fear of attack regardless of what you have been convicted of. People wanting whatever you have got, ready at the cell door the moment you are unlocked, it aint no picknick but, deterrent, NO!

Then going on what you're saying.........the 'punishment' of being sent to prison is no deterrent at all.......and that's the whole idea and the point of the question. It seems prison in itself is no hardship, which is the problem, but the fear of the social/general day to day life in prison is more of an issue.....then there is the answer to the question!
Quite what the hell the idea of prisoners having satellite tv or playstations in their (rooms) cell is I don't quite get and never will.....along with the concept of serving half a sentence and getting out early for 'good behaviour'......no wonder the proper concept of prison doesn't work. Have no problem with people serving their full sentence and coming out and learning their lesson and not re-offending. But I totally agree with the American system of 3 strikes and your in for life.....if it means we have to build more prisons then so be it......how many chances do these people get to have. No doubt all the 'prisoners have rights' brigade will try and justify that all criminals are victims of society and should be forgiven......untill they are a victim of crime themselves and their sudden compassion and understanding of criminals becomes over shadowed by their own hypocracy!

 

[Davemania]

Is it such a big deal? considering some of the things people do these days, going to prison used to be the ultimate deterrent, i don't think that's the case and doing the time is worth the risk for the crime, yes you lose your right of freedom of movement but everything is laid on for you in prison, it's not exactly hard labour is it?

Have you ever been, I would imagine it would be terrifying for your average bloke who's not used to hard cases

 

[Big G]

Have you ever been, I would imagine it would be terrifying for your average bloke who's not used to hard cases

Which is exactly the issue. The whole point should be about being scared of prison itself, not the day to day survival/ social concept. If you are a armed blagger sticking shotguns in people's faces or a blue collar fraudster the whole concept should be the same.....prison should be a punishment in itself. And yes this will mean harsher prison conditions for some, but if that's what it takes, so be it!

 

[Crackpot]

My ex did a severe stretch in Holloway....a terrible place.Whatever happened in there I will never know as she refused to discuss any of it,but it twisted her personality permanently,and she became a sociopath with behaviour that still makes me shudder. I don't think she'll ever go back inside,but once was enough to mess her head up forever. When she was incarcerated,I visited many times. The other visitors were scary,like an underclass I'd never seen before.The other inmates were the roughest bunch of women imaginable.Anyone who thinks Holloway is an exotic place is deluding themselves to the nth degree.

 

[Davemania]

Which is exactly the issue. The whole point should be about being scared of prison itself, not the day to day survival/ social concept. If you are a armed blagger sticking shotguns in people's faces or a blue collar fraudster the whole concept should be the same.....prison should be a punishment in itself. And yes this will mean harsher prison conditions for some, but if that's what it takes, so be it!

Yeah but the day to day concept of survival is exactly one and the same why prison is hard, no matter how tough you think you are, away from the public eye, you are in the shit unless you are as hard as nails and stand your ground from day one. You have to be a hard nut to do that

 

[HovaGirl]

It wouldn't do any harm for young offenders at risk of a custodial sentence to get 24 hours 'work experience' inside just to give them a taste of what awaits, maybe a few might just think again.

Excellent idea.

 

[sammy g]

Working with offenders on community sentence drug programme, I can confirm 100% of them want to avoid returning to or going to Prison. As a poster said the boredom and denial of liberty are the biggest deterrent. That said, Prison or the threat of Prison is often not enough to stop people from going there time and time again.

 

[NMH]

It wouldn't do any harm for young offenders at risk of a custodial sentence to get 24 hours 'work experience' inside just to give them a taste of what awaits, maybe a few might just think again.

Good post, and especially the last part. Agreed.
Do young offenders get the attention they actually NEED by society? They could get lectured by regretful ex-cons who can drum the hell of it into their skulls, or they can repeat offend until they go in for a stretch - and then it's too late and they're part of THAT system and labelled as such.

I'm not sure that the threat of prison is a deterrent for most people, but the alternative would be terrible if there was no prison justice system. It's bad enough in some places (like West Street on a weekend night for instance) to not want to have that imposed on you 100% of the time, 24/7 - stuck with people you would absolutely passionately despise.

Personally, the whole idea of having freedom taken away is too abject to contemplate.
I believe some get addicted and attached to the prison system almost like some people get addicted to karaoke. A place where they can maybe get recognition by their peers, get into the hierarchy, impress them, do some bullying, yes maybe even get involved in prison sex because that's where their partners are.

 

[pseudonym]

Have you ever been, I would imagine it would be terrifying for your average bloke who's not used to hard cases

No the closest i've ever been is visiting someone who was in Lewes and then Ford, i've also visited Holloway, that was not nice, the person i know in belmarsh i refused to visit him because of what he done, i would have liked to just to see what it was like but it was a difficult situation, when hes released i shall go and see him and ask about his experience.

Prison is clearly not much of a deterrent which would explain why we have such overcrowded establishments, if your streetwise then i doing time is easier for you than someone who is of nervous disposition. Im convinced the economic situation is going to tempt people into crime because the perception of prison being easy, people who would never have consider crime will weigh up the risk reward and think it's a chance worth taking.