It now appears that British jails system are not a punishment, or even a rehabilitation, system any more. It is now so "cushy" being inside that the prisoners just don't want to escape. This is something which many people have thought to be true for some time, me included, now it is coming out into the open. I find it disgusting that murderers, rapists, paedophiles and the myriad other miscreants who are inside jail are better off, overall, than those of us who are law abiding. BBC NEWS | UK | Jails 'too comfy' to merit escape

I think I've mentioned this before - something about the amount of money spent on games consoles. Prison should be the bare bones you need to exist. Why they need all this comfort is beyond me although I suspect it might have something to do with European Human Rights.

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Not only should jails provide protection for the general public and some sort of retribution for the acts commited by the criminal it should also provide a deterant not only to the criminals but also to any would be offender thinking about commiting a crime.

Yes prisons are overcrowded (something to do with a 40% population increase in the last 50 years and no new prisions built, your minor offence taking 18 months to come to trial) and the inmates are bored but that's not the point. They are supposed to leave them with the goal of never doing anything which could make them be sent back there.

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Purely playing devil's advocate here, but that article was from 25 April, 2008. If you pop Glyn Travis into Google you will get a sense of the public interest this generated...including the suggestion that he was touting for more public funds for prison Services. Overall he is certainly on the conservative side of opinion about prisons. The Ministry for Justice stated in reply that "harsh" treatment does not encourage prisoners to reform...a classic argument for liberals but maybe it does have some merit.
Mr. Travis did omit to say that since 1996 the Service has operated a merit system of payment and privileges among prisoners...that TV in cells is earned and paid for by those prisoners who behave well, that "breakfast in bed" was a myth but had nothing to say about the drug problem...IMO probably the worst problem of all, far worse than the soft control of prisoners.
However the real punishment comes after the prisoner is released back into society and carries a record with him/her forever. Their probability of getting any meaningful work is very low so they often end either claiming SocSec for the rest of their lives or end up back in prison. Whichever it is, it is a drain on taxpayers' money.
Perhaps we have it all backwards...we should be harsher while they are in prison but more compassionate when they get out. But I can't see it happening.

huh yes!! they are over crowded because the buggers do go back again and again and again!!! total madness! but on the other hand those jailed waiting to be tried can be in prisons that are not fit to keep dogs in, this was certainly true up to a few years ago, this may have changed now i am not sure but my best friends boyfriend landed himself inside waiting a trial and he came out in a state of shock from over flowing toilet buckets and over crowded cells and being locked in for 23 hours of every day

This is the information dealing with HMP Belmarsh which is a category A prison and also holds remand prisoners for the Central Criminal Court and Magistrates Courts in London. It is amongst the most modern prisons in the system, being opersational in 1991. If you scan through the information and photographs on this site I think you will find that the conditions are good and the facilities better than are found in many holiday camps.

HM Prison Service - Locate a Prison - Belmarsh

This site, again the official site for Prisons in the UK is for HMP Pentonville, which is a much older prison than Belamarsh, being opened in 1842. Some of the photographs as the same as those found in the Belmarsh site so aren't necessarily typical of Pentonville.

HM Prison Service - Locate a Prison - Pentonville

Reading the way these establishments work doesn't indicate to me that punishment is a major factor in their operation.

I had a look at the site, moved my telescope around the prison and read the details. Included in the recreation were TV's, pool tables and a gym. Pretty basic to me...

I was particularly interested in the educational aspect and was pleased to see opportunities for gaining qualifications and skills in quite a few areas.

As for punishment, perhaps that is whether yoiu think prison is for punishment or correction. We may have to agree to differ on that front.

Neither! It's not about the criminal, it's about the law-abiding members of the public who don't wish to be victims of crime. We accept that we have to pay to have these people removed from society for our own protection. But I don't see why they should have a quality of life better than many pensioners. Why I should fund their education and social life? What a brilliant system we have here. You can work hard at school go to University and get a degree providing you are prepared to incurr debts of £20,000 or you can beat up an old lady for her pension and you might get sent to prision where your degree will be funded by the taxpayer all in the name of reintegrating you into society. Yes right crime doesn't pay does it?.

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and THAT is the nail hit on the head good and proper
well said!

I am afraid that the Politically Correct brigade who go on about "Human Rights" and "re-educating criminals" to stop them re-offending again, and again, and again, are one of the reasons this country is in the mess it is in. The days when criminals who commited "robbery with violence", these days they call it "mugging", were punished by a prison sentence which meant something plus corporal punishment, the birch, is long past. I personally know of one young man who beat someone up and robbed them who was sentenced to six strokes of the birch. Because of his young age he didn't get a prison sentence. The punishment was administered directly after the trial and he swore he would never commit a similar crime again. In todays PC driven society he would have got an ASBO and maybe, just maybe, a few hours community service. The ASBO would be treated like a medal, increasing his "street credibility" and the community service may or may not be completed. The victim would come out at the bottom of the list in terms of mental stress and physical damage while the criminal would get all the sympathy and help to "reform".

Prison should be a place where the inmates do not want to stay. Where TV's and recreational facilities are not available as they are now and where the regime is strict. Work should be carried out to supplement the cost of keeping these reprobates in prison, not as a form of "spending money". The old system of Hard Labour had much to commend it. These days the work is light and the regular inmates know how to work the system. Criminals need to be made to understand that the crimes they commit are not acceptable and will be punished and their "Human Rights" have been withdrawn for the duration of their sentence.