Proof that prison life is better then civilian life for felons...

On our show for ATS live that's going to air tonight we had the opportunity to discuss the federal prison system.

Now I have been putting it out there for a long time that when you become a felon, it's EASIER to survive in the prison system then it is on the outside and that our society does not allow room for the reintegration of innate back into society and that the choice is easy to make for inmates.

During our interview we had multiple confirmations from a prison industry insider who had a very interesting topic on why this is true.

Here are a few reasons;

Better healthcare,
Food,
Work,
Gym,
Bed,
Educational opportunities,
Television,
Internet,

The cons;

Low paying job,
Hard to find work period,
No healthcare,
No place to sleep/ rent,
Social atmosphere

All of this and not to mention the corruption within the industry and the fraternizing of inmates with officers.

Anyway, enjoy the interview and I am interested in reading your perspectives on the subject because the prison industry and our system of law is one of the topics I'm most interested in.

a reply to: onequestion

It's that last one that's the bugger. Don't underestimate (that so glibly phrased) "social atmosphere". People are regularly beaten and raped in prison. Not to mention the many opportunities for guards to treat prisoners as subhuman and many guards take those opportunities. I get the three hots and a cot idea and maybe for some the risk of rape and dehumanization is secondary to survival. Maybe it is easier to survive but for most but I don't think it's easier to live.

It's unfair, they did away with prisoners working in prison in many areas. I had to work to live, I still have to maintain my home. My money goes on my bills. Prisoners don't have to do anything if they don't want to.

When did we make prison a place where you didn't have to work to survive. They don't even make license plates here anymore. This is actually unfair, they don't even have to look for a job like people on any kind of government assistance do.

This is not the prisoners fault, it is societies fault. Prisoners should work eight hours a day on jobs that help pay their upkeep. If I wound up in prison, I would want to be doing something, not sitting around listening to the guys bragging about their adventures.

a reply to: rickymouse
Actually,at least here in AZ,they do make the lisence plates! In Nebraska,the sewing dept made the seats in the husker stadium.A few have auto shops where they do limo conversions.A lot more than you hear of happens there,IF the inmate wants to do it.Most just sit and wait to be released.Lots of opprotunity,if there was ambition.

I agree with the points made in the post referring to the Pro's and Con's of staying in or out of jail. I think its probably a little simplified but makes a valid point.
However, why such a large number of felons in the USA?. More should be done to lower the amount of people committing and being locked up for these crimes rather than trying to rehabilitate and redirect them back into society.
Catching the majority before they fall rather than trying to put them back together after the fact makes more sense and would remove the pressure on society of trying to reclaim the multitude of people who have been exposed to and changed by the horrors of living in a confined and savage environment that is the penal system.
There will always be some who will need to be locked up because they have no respect for the people around them. The ones who's respect for the rest of society is overwhelmed by their unfortunate situation due to reasons out of their control should be given somewhere to turn to rather than a life behind bars.
One day we'll learn to share....In a non communist sort of way, more of hippy communal generous spirit sense. Its evolution baby

a reply to: onequestion

Good topic, but one con you forgot is chance of rape is increased 10 fold.... sure I may be exaggerating a little with 10 fold but the chance is most definitely higher.
Be back on later to go deeper into the topic, just on my phone about to go put the door

a reply to: blkcwbyhat

They did away with a lot of that in Michigan. They still work in the kitchens but they contracted out control to private business in some areas. They used to make license plates, but that went away long ago now, some high ranking individual must have had a friend that desired to make license plates to sell to the state.

A prisoner should be earning their keep. They could learn to work there and appreciate a job when they get out because they have learned that they have to work in either place. No free rides for anyone, even in the Federal prisons where things are much easier. Doing a Felony gets you better company, the big wheels are there. Some prisons are for rich people, they mingle with their kind, the government doesn't treat them the same. There are actually swimming pools for the prisoners to use in a few facilities. I suppose in our society built on deceit, the best deceivers are given a break. Outright theives are not allowed here, just people who trick you out of your money.

I met a guy in a big fancy Hotel in Florida who was placed there for major fraud while he awaited trial. He wasn't allowed to leave the Hotel, he wasn't allowed off the floor we were on without someone. He had swindled millions of dollars from people. Instead of going to jail to await trial they stuck him in this Hotel prison where he could go swimming, eat at the fancy restaurant, and call whoever he wanted or have anyone over. His was not a violent crime and he was not a flight risk, he had money to pay back the people he ripped off in his schemes. He complained that the great continental breakfast we ate in the mornings was crap. He complained about the Hilton we stayed in at about one thirty a night many years ago, it was not up to his standards. I guess he was really suffering there, how would he have done in the county jail. We only stayed there three days in 89. Met a few good people there, ones who had to suffer with this guys negativity. He thought he was right, that if he could sucker people out of their money he was superior to them. I did not approve of his actions even though he was targeting richer people. Richer businessmen just pass their losses on to the consumer.

I never did find what happened to that guy, he kept insisting his scheme was legal. I actually think it may have been legal, there are not many laws that govern deceit or swindling others. If there was, then most salesmen would be in jail for talking someone into buying something more than they really need. Our country is based on deceit, most people have been conditioned so well they can't even identify deceit. If you can see it, they call you paraniod and label you with a mental illness. You are not supposed to be aware, you are supposed to be normally blind to this. Except those who run all of this, they learn to control it. They are very good at this, it has been run for many generations. There is probably a college that teaches this subject, a college that most people do not get to attend.

originally posted by: onequestion
The cons;

Low paying job,
Hard to find work period,
No healthcare,
No place to sleep/ rent,
Social atmosphere

and the fact that you are LOCKED INSIDE!

Iv'e served some time in Swedish prison (no, not the same as US prisons...not at all) and just the fact that you can't do whatever you wanna do slowly kills you inside... everyday...
They take away your creativity since it's the same all days year around.
They close the mind of the prisoner by having the same thing over and over again.
They create a product of you.

Yes, we got to do work for about 1.30usd an hour 6 hours a day.
Yes, we had 2 hours a week to go to the gym
No, no internet access what so ever.
Yes, Tv.
Yes, Education. But on a 15 year old level.
And btw, the food they serve.... yukk!

For those who wonders...
I had a habit of making money selling herbs.

And that's not ok with the goverment they say.
I think it's the fact that I had better drugs than they did

a reply to: onequestion
@Proof that prison life is better then civilian life for felons...

To 1 op it is only a acceptable/reasonable lifestyle to those who are institutionalized or in transient like positions within society suffering from depression issues that cannot take care of their own. For most would view the experience as uncomforting being away from their families, friends and loved ones not to mention the lack of companionship. So those elements mentioned within the OP are valid to an extent but it depends on the inmate or individuals being considered...

a reply to: generalspecific

Part of the problem is with a segment of our society teaching their kids that education is bad. Teaching their children that living in the ghetto virtually for free is better than having a work ethic and lifting yourself out of the morass. Teaching their children how to work the system to get the most they can for free.

And we cannot discuss it. It is not politically correct to discuss these problems amongst others.

So...these kids (who do not have a chance in life because of their loser parents) wind up in the system from an early age.

no. prison may be simpler than 'real' life. but it's not better.

I was just joking with my significant other about this issue the other day. She was in the waiting room at the dentists and there was a chained prisoner in there in a jumpsuit with a couple of guards. The one guard went up and told the receptionist to bill the prisoners dental work to the local jail.

I jokingly suggested I should maybe commit a crime so I can get some of the dental work done that I desperately need, as I have not had dental coverage since I was 18 (despite working my entire life). I had one job where I was promised benefits, and after 4 and a half years there, I filled out all the paperwork for my benefits and thought I was finally on my way to receiving the dental care I needed. The company folded a month later in the crash of 2008 and I was laid off before I could ever use the benefits I'd been waiting for.

Btw, if you're wondering why my partner has coverage and I don't, it's because I'm white and she is treaty (we're Canadian). The government pays for her dental work and that of the kids, but not mine

Prison should be:
16 hour work days of hard labor 7 days a week. It's prison.

But prison is a business. They sell the prisoners stuff from their magazine. I've known of prisoners who had TV and Xbox 360 and other game consoles. That's why there's so many repeat offenders. If it were a hard labor camp I bet the return rate would drop dramatically. What do criminals hate? work. Even the prison systems have been turned into a money-making scheme.

a reply to: Fylgje

If it were a hard labor camp like the Gulags with the numbers we have incarcerated and sheer scale of predators we having among all the innocence? I think it would be far far worse inside than it is now. I mean in cruel and evil ways...not in any positive way.

Perhaps if we ever get some sense to outright segregate and firewall our prison system between those we're warehousing as lifers or 25+ vs. the people who did non-violent stuff? It'd be better about getting some labor done around the nation. I can think of some real big projects volunteer captive labor could be useful for..but not like it is now.

We'd also have a lot more escapes and a lot more being shot trying. I don't know if making the prisons worse from the individual perspective is helpful until a lot of other things happen first?

top lel.

Let me tell you about prison.

It #ing sucks. My buddy went to a minimum security prison for a few months. The # he told me would break a lesser man. He talked about every night before he went to bed, he heard the screams of everyone who was getting raped that night. He talked about seeing a old guy serving 30 years butt rape a young guy in front of dozens of people because he was sagging his pants.

I did time in juvie for a multitude of things and let me tell you. Being told how to live your life and being confined all day every day will break your ego and break your mind. Some people can't handle the outside so they just keep coming back. They could never find that kind of stability in their lives otherwise. They may get all of these "benefits" but just remember.

You can go outside and breath fresh air, they can't

a reply to: onequestion

I'm not a fellon and i agree. However I know of something even better....Make everyone a multi billionaire with a few keystrokes. None of it is real anyways.

lol at supply and demand.

The other option they have is to leave the U.S. where they can create for themself a new identity and try making a life for themselves somewhere else in the world. They wouldn't be able to come back to the U.S. with the new identity because their fingerprints would ruin their new identity but at least it would be a way of trying to start over.

a reply to: onequestion

You realize you contradicted yourself by saying better healthcare and than no healthcare. Which one is it?

By the way, American prisons are no joke outside of torture traps like in Mexico. Sorry, but getting the slop that you can't even name the food you are eating, 3X a day, is not better food.

I can guarantee you that 90% of the armchair warriors on this site will be crying for their mothers before the end of the first 24 hours.

a reply to: blkcwbyhat
It depends on the state.

My state had the prisoners make all the supplies, furniture, you name it, for the government. Even all the forms that the different agencies used. They could learn anything from printing to making a desk.

But like many states, those budgets were cut, leaving prisoners without much to do. As far as I am concerned, those should be the most important programs to fund.

You guys will be pretty much appalled at the conditions in the federal prison system. For both the guards, and on the other hand, the inmates. It is not what you think.

Tune in tonight at atsliveradio.com, 10 pm EST.

See you in chat!