What will they do with the prison inmates?

Going by history, which is the only precedent I can think of . . .

Most inmates are either released with no questions, or slaughtered en masse.

I'm thinking of the Bolshevik revolution, as well as the french, Spanish, Cuban, etc., and the end of WWII.

Generally, occupying governing powers attempt to sort out the violent offenders from the political prisoners, like the Union Army did when occupying the South on Sherman's march to the sea; problem is, every prisoner claims he "was on your side" and is political rather than a criminal detainee.

Mobs are much more likely (I'm guessing here) to just shoot everyone. Particularly since mobs are generally egged on or led by the most radical elements. This would be particularly true if a fascist or militarist uprising seized power---as the genuine representatives of the people's will, they'd claim to "clamp down on crime." Probably with a round-the-clock firing squad.

I was thinking of the same thing. That they will settle scores first. Many of them are indeed mentally ill and may not survive long anyhow. I think it will be crazy at first, but they will be eliminated.

It may not hurt to learn street survival. To know how criminals act and think. So you can spot them, or at least negotiate for survival. And how to protect yourself. While yes, the grocery bagger can become violent, they are less likely to have fight skills, strength, or ambition like a criminal. I think your first defense would be recongition. Most would have tattoos. recongize prison tattoos. Look up profiles, walking,talking,age,etc.
While criminals are very street smart, they won't have other knowledge. They may not be interested in other subjects, so a lack of knowledge in other areas would be a flag. Like previous politics,agendas, world happenings, etc.Or ask questions a prisoner would know.I bet a prison gaurd would be able to tell you what to look for.

Isn't that what happened in Austrailia? They turned out pretty well,not to mention a fun group.

Yup, but try and think of a massive almost uninhabited bit of land surrounded by sea and is a long way a way now a days. Only Antarcica left. Penguin meat any one?!

Not a bad idea tho, I don't necessarily mean the south pole, but as a population we could do with moving certain activities out of harms way - or even moving moving populations out of harms way. Use the labour available so as to forward the inmate as well as the general population.

Or we could place micro generators in the controls of the play stations their given and let them recharge the mobile phone they're not supposed to have

Good points History is usually the best resouce to consult when developing a possible scenario like this as it usually has a past example to provide for most any situation imagineable.

I would tend to believe that the inmates would have to be released, as mass execution would not be an option. In a doomsday scenario like this one, the manpower needed to carry out the executions of several million prisoners would not be available as guards and other employees would most likely abandon their posts to fend for their own families and save their own skins.

Secondly I can't imagine the resources would be available to carry out such a mass extermination. How would it be done? Certainly there would not be enough gun ammunition at hand to carry it out, and any ammo available would be worth it's weight in gold.

I have to believe that the only two options would be to A.) leave them locked up to starve or B.) release them all back into society. The thought of several million human beings (even if they are criminals) starving to a slow and painful death is horrible and awful to imagine. But on the other hand releasing that many violent, opportunistic offenders at once into the public streets would be damn near suicide for the regular folks trying to survive such an event.

If the government or NWO or some other organized body were responsible for the collapse then certainly such a large number of prison inmates would be a great source for recruiting more shock troops to use against the countries citizens, similar to what was mentioned that took place in Russia. But it would seem that they would be a big risk and difficult to control to say the least.

Whatever you may think, this countries enormous prison populous will not just go away, and should the spit ever hit the fan, they will have to be dealt with in one fashion or another. Pretty frightening concept either was you slice it.

Great thought provoking posts so far...very neat

Remember Stephen King's 'The Stand'? Most of man wiped out by plague and the few inmates that didn't die of plague did in fact starve to death in prison. (Cept the one let out by the 'Walkin Dude' )
Jules