Effectiveness of torture in gaining information.

[Sir Degrader]

If by coddled you mean raped, and by granted every desire, fed lackluster food, live in constant fear of violence, and have regular violations of their rights, then yeah, prison sounds awesome!

[machinehead]

Originally posted by Sir Degrader: If by coddled you mean raped, and by granted every desire, fed lackluster food, live in constant fear of violence, and have regular violations of their rights, then yeah, prison sounds awesome!

Been watching too much Oz?
3 of the guys I work with have been in prison, 2 for 5 years for drugs and 1 for 2 years for cracking the skull of a cop with nunchucks. According to them they were never raped and only 1 got into a fight which landed him in solitary for a couple of months.

[wanderon]

Originally posted by True_Moose: quote: Originally posted by wanderon: They should be treated humanely but not comforted and coddled and granted their every desire.

If they're PoWs, they probably should be treated quite a bit better than the average prisoner anyway.

Also, have you ever been to prison? Because I haven't and I'll tell you, if they were coddled and granted their every desire, I'd be in there. [/QUOTE]As a matter of fact I do have some personal experience with a few levels of the systems used to house alleged criminals and/or to "punish" convicted ones in this country altho none in the last 20 years.

Some facilites are more like dorms than prison and you would be hard pressed to find even city and county jails that don't offer cable TV today. In long term facilities libraries, wieght training, convienence stores, access to college courses, sports teams, bands, this list is endless especially in the more "progressive" states. I think this may indeed lead to people who commit crimes knowing that even if caught it's no big deal to do a few years in jail especially if its a federal rap.

As for POWs I have no first hand knowledge but my gut feeling is the folks at Gitmo would be considered "pampered" compared to POWs in any other war in history.

I think there is too much concern today for the rights of those who often by their own admission have no regards at all for the rights of others. I agree that not to do so risks us becoming the same and that thus its important for us to take the high road but sometimes I think we could suffice with something a bit lower without compromising ourselves too dearly.

[True_Moose]

I agree with you that some inmates should be a lot less better off than they are. As a Canadian, I can personally think of umpteen ways to finish off one Mr. Paul Bernardo, and none of them are pleasant.

However, I worry about the extension of your philosophy. I don't know the extent of your position on the matter, but a lot of people who say "Coddle prisoners less," say it as a result of the victims. While I agree that in some prisons (seriously, why are there such things as low-security prisons? Isn't the point of prisons to have a certain amount of, well, security?) prisoners have access to amenities far exceeding what they should, we also have to remember that for the vast majority of prisoners, they will not spend the rest of their lives there. If you're going to try to rehabilitate them with any chance of success, you need to treat them humanely and with respect. I would rather have inmates who aren't totally desensitized by their prison experience living in my community.

And good for you to actually know something about the state of prisons. Too many people will say "It's too coddly," just because of what is portrayed on TV.

[wanderon]

Actually "good" had little to do with the manner in which I recieved much of that knowledge...

However unlike D&D alignments can change in real life. I went through a rehabilitation type facility long ago and far away but did not give up my evil ways until I landed in a much less hospitable place for a short time a couple years later.