From: john@mks.com (John Postma)
Subject: Re: Women's Prison
Organization: Mortice Kern Systems Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 21:53:43 GMT

In article <BvCAsE.1Fp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> eboritz@watarts.uwaterloo.ca (Efrim Boritz) writes:
>In article <pcormier.07cs@bfield.uucp> pcormier@bfield.uucp (Paul Cormier) writes:
>>
>		[stuff about 'not in my back yard' deleted]
>
>>Personally I don't think that was a very smart choice when there is land
>>available on the outskirts of the town with no body around it.  An even better
>>idea, one that should have been put forward a long time ago would be to put
>>them all in 1 central *ISLAND* isolated somewhere... up north!  Who cares about
>>their rights?  Why does the prisons have to be scattered around the country...
>>so that they can be closer to whatever friends/family they have?  Nah, just
>>doesn't cut it.
>>
>
>This just begs a response (even if just to show that someone doesn't
>agree with these inhumane (for lack of a better word) views).
>
>Sure, let's go back to penal colonies (maybe even debtors prison?).
>Or, since criminals should have no rights, lets sell them into slavery.
>Even better, since it is a womens's prison we are talking about, let's
>open a state run brothel and have them earn their keep.
>
>Was that knee-jerk enough?

Although I see you are exagerating to prove your point here, I also don't
agree with some of the basic concepts you are aluding to.  I don't mean to
imply that prisoner's don't have rights, or that we have some right to 
ignore common ethics or laws when pertaining to prisoners, but I do see 
some of Mr. Cormier's point here.  It seems to me that we sometimes give
greater weight to the rights of prisoner's than to common, law abiding 
citizens.  I see no inhumane act in have prisoner's work to aid in the
cost of their keep - a very substantial drain of taxpayer's money.  Why
should everyone have to pay the price of a prisoner's mistakes.  Also, I
don't buy the idea of putting prisoner's to work as being demeaning to them.
Someone out there is doing these jobs right now, putting in a hard days 
work is not a demeaning position, especially for those who are living off
the tax dollars being paid by others.  I also see no good argument here for
putting prisons on cheaper, isolated land.  Perhaps putting them all on some
island isn't feasible, but distributing new sites to isolated, cheap lands
seems like a good idea to me.  If the sites are isolated there is lesser
chance of an escaped convict to threaten the well being of others, the cost
is less, and the idea of isolation should also be a punishment to the 
prisoners - after all that's one of the reasons their are prisons, to restrict
freedom as a punishment for breaking the law!  The idea isn't to make prison
a more comfortable place, it is suppose to act as a deterant - somewhere you
don't want to be.

(Disclaimer: These views are my own and in no way reflect those of my
employer)

-- 
    /||  // // ,'/""\'   John Postma	         john@mks.com  (519)884-2251
   / ||/// //\' `\\\     Database Administrator,   Mortice Kern Systems Inc.
  /  |/ /_//  \\___/     35 King St. N., Waterloo, Ont., Can. N2J 2W9
o/   "Things are only impossible until they're not!" -- Capt Jean Luc Picard