Ramona asked this question on 5/10/2000:
In Tamms, Il, close to where I live, there is a super-maximum security prison. There 39 inmates are on a hunger strike that is now in its second week. The 39 inmates--down from the 168 last week--are protesting what they claim are arbitrary and illegal practices that endanger their mental and physical well-being.
Their lists of grievances includes claims of abuse of mentally-ill inamtes, ill-fitting shoes, and inadequate clothing. They also claim that they must become informants to win transfer back to traditional prisons--which endangers their lives. Inmates say that the guards often restrict their meals to a ground-up mixture called meat loaf and that the commissary extorts them for favors. They are locked up for 23 hrs a day.
Correction officers say they are reviewing the complaints. The lawyer for the imates says that previous intervention has accomplished nothing.
So, what do you think should be done? Do these inmates--and these are the worst of the worst, have no doubts that these guys got here by earning their tickets--deserve better treatment? The sort of life they live some people in poor countries like India would envy. Do we owe them better treatment when they would likely rape, murder, and steal every one and every thing they could?
MarcusAurelius gave this response on 5/11/2000:
I agree with tcsmpsi's response.
I also offer this observation: in prison, cons often have to join gangs in order to survive, yet gang activity can get you 1) killed by an opposing gang, or 2) transferred to a seg unit like supermax. The only way to get out of a segregated unit is by rolling over on other gang members and the only way out of a gang is to ask for segregation. Sometimes, suspected gang members are put into pc and they are, in fact, not gang members. They have nothing to spill, so they can never get out.
And this observation: Yes, these are killers and rapists and sociopaths and I certainly don't want them wandering the streets, but the reality is that someday most of them WILL get out. And how they were treated on the inside certainly dictates how they will react on the outside.
The average rating for this answer is 4.
Ramona rated this answer a 4.