Police have been told to show more respect to their prisoners: dim the lights at night, don’t slam cell doors and serve tea, coffee or milk at least three times a day.
New “soft cell” human rights guidelines from Victoria’s Office of Police Integrity say cell blocks should be calm and relaxing, with light-shaded wall colours.
Meals should be of good nutritional value and quantity, and second helpings should be available “on reasonable request”.
The Police Association and a victims’ lobby group claimed yesterday the OPI’s standards for police cells treated prisoners better than many pensioners.
Association secretary Sen-Sgt Greg Davies said the reaction of police would be “fits of hysterical laughter followed by justified outrage”.
“No doubt we’ll have a queue of pensioners and victims of the financial crisis lined up to smash a window at a police station to be housed in such luxurious surroundings,” Sen-Sgt Davies said.
[…]
“I wonder when we’re going to see the introduction of mini-bars – that seems to be all that’s lacking,” he said.
Wonder if the financial meltdown will reduce our sky high incarceration rates. Too many in prison for personal drug use and other pointless reasons while the scumbag investment bankers not only don’t go to jail, they get money from the politicians that enable them. We pay either way.
Our attitude toward prisons and prisoners seems always torn between the punishers and the rehabilitators. On the one hand, victims’ advocates seem to think all prisons should be just like Guantanamo or the old Soviet Gulags, with daily beatings, loud noise and music 24/7 and a diet of 1000 calories a day, mostly made up of road kill, rats, bugs and floor sweepings. On the other hand, some people realize that most of these prisoners will eventually be released back into society, and it might be a good idea if they weren’t turned into vicious murderous beasts by their stay.
I thought Australia was one big prison anyway. Didn’t it start out as a penal colony.
Re. #2 – If you are joking, ha, ha. If not then no, for example (the state) South Australia never had prisoners sent to it. New South Wales (where Sydney is) had lots, and Tasmania had lots but that was not the purpose of establishing the colony. Also lots of the “criminals” were convicted of stealing food to feed themselves or there families in fascist Britain (just like the King, who was not punished).
The prisons are also largely for profit businesses and I would say a large percentage of the prisoners (financial, non-violent) should not even be there. It costs more to have people in prison than to pay for everything they need outside (not that I think they should all be given everything free).
Those in prison for unprovoked violent crimes (that they actually committed) can rot as far as I am concerned.
Why should people suffer in prison? They are sent there to be removed from society for the betterment of all, not to be vindictively punished to satiate the bloodlust of partial victims and their families. We should treat people in penitentiaries well, not because they deserve it, but because it is the right thing to do.
WOW, four replies and not one roundly supporting the Police Association.
This shows the bias of the Police. The article is about those arrested and in Police custody. It is not about those convicted and being punished. And in Australia, as in most western countries, you are innocent until proven guilty. It makes no sense that someone accused of a crime should be punished from the start.
#3 It was a joke. You should have known that someone would joke about it.
Prisons or even jails should not be nice. However, the inmates should be given three nutritious meals a day, a bed to sleep in, and they should be separated so they aren’t harmed by other inmates.
There should also be some kind of useful work for them to do. People awaiting trial would naturally be exempt.
Actually, only people who are dangerous to others or others property should be in jail. Pot smokers, tax dodgers, etc. shouldn’t be in prison.
Once there, they shouldn’t be punished (physical, emotional). They should be made to produce something useful to society & probably educated if they are not in for life. 3 meals a day, minimal healthcare.
#6, Benji
People awaiting trial would naturally be exempt.
If you read the article you would have known that these are the prisoners being discussed.
What does the comment have to do with the article?
# 1 Uncle Patso said:
“On the one hand, victims’ advocates seem to think all prisons should be just like Guantanamo or the old Soviet Gulags, with daily beatings, loud noise and music 24/7 and a diet of 1000 calories a day, mostly made up of road kill, rats, bugs and floor sweepings.”
All Right!! Now we’re talking! This sounds about right to me!!
“On the other hand, some people realize that most of these prisoners will eventually be released back into society, and it might be a good idea if they weren’t turned into vicious murderous beasts by their stay.”
Oh crap!!
“Intellectuals need to say things that are not immediately obvious or do not occur to the man in the street. The man in the street instinctively sympathizes with the victim of crime; therefore, to distinguish himself from the man in the street, the intellectual has to sympathize with the criminal, by turning him into a victim of forces which only he, the intellectual, has sufficient sophistication to see.”
This article just proves what I have suspected for a long time: that being a leftist liberal is a mental illness.
What about murder victims?
what about rape victims?
what about people who’s been attacked? brutalized?
what about children who’s been sexually abused?
what about people who’s property as been stolen, vandalized?
what about freakin justice?!
It just shows, that leftist liberals understand and respect only one thing: brutal force. Show force, and the liberals will give you everything you want – even good conditions in prison.
Imagine your mother being raped by one of these criminals. Now send the rapist for a good time in prison.
Imagine your father being attacked, beaten an inch from his life. Now give that attacker some nice cozy “soft cells” in prison.
Imagine your loved ones suffering and the people who caused it doing something “useful” in a “soft cell”, sipping tea 3 times a day, having the time of their life with their sadistic friends in “prison hotel”.
You people have completely lost it.
#12, jerka,
Imagine yourself in a jail cell, being held for a murder you did not commit. If you want to be beaten and sadistically treated then hey great !!! I’m sure you would love it. But I’ll repeat it,
THIS IS FOR THOSE AWAITING TRIAL. It is not for those that have been convicted. In most western countries, you are innocent until proven guilty. It is not part of our legal system to be punished when someone is innocent.
Why do you hate America?
Being beaten and held for a crime that you did not commit is the “American Way” and what it comes down to is that crime does pay and is big business for people other than the so-called criminals. Just think, if crime were reduced by 50%, how many criminal attorneys, law enforcement, prison guards, etc., would be looking for a new job?