Why do prisons cost the taxpayer money???
Discussion
Let us consider what a Prison is, it is a place full of people with a debt to society, which currently costs £119,000 for each new prison place and an annual average cost per prisoner exceeding £40,000 ( Source.
Now each of these prisoners is capable of doing some work, granted it is limited by the risk and other factors, but they could do something. So, why are they not out building roads, digging out ditches, picking up litter? Chain them all together and give them a brush each then send them down the road, granted this will loose the jobs of some street sweepers, but they could get a job as a prison guard/trainer now that we have this extra income from prisons.
If they don't work, then they get a day added to their sentence for each day they refuse to work, if they work very hard and do "overtime" then they can get time taken off their sentence.
It seems bizarre that someone out of prison can earn enough to pay for a house and car, but that a prisoner COSTS £40,000 per year to keep.
I know they do some work, some of them clean other cells, cook etc, but surely we could make them actually pay for themselves instead of costing???
So why does this not happen????
Now each of these prisoners is capable of doing some work, granted it is limited by the risk and other factors, but they could do something. So, why are they not out building roads, digging out ditches, picking up litter? Chain them all together and give them a brush each then send them down the road, granted this will loose the jobs of some street sweepers, but they could get a job as a prison guard/trainer now that we have this extra income from prisons.
If they don't work, then they get a day added to their sentence for each day they refuse to work, if they work very hard and do "overtime" then they can get time taken off their sentence.
It seems bizarre that someone out of prison can earn enough to pay for a house and car, but that a prisoner COSTS £40,000 per year to keep.
I know they do some work, some of them clean other cells, cook etc, but surely we could make them actually pay for themselves instead of costing???
So why does this not happen????
How much do you think it would cost to securely take prisoners out of prison and get them to pick up litter? Probably twice as much as it costs to keep them locked up all day.
As for building roads, or indeed anything useful, I'd say quality rather than quantity comes into effect here.
As for building roads, or indeed anything useful, I'd say quality rather than quantity comes into effect here.
CzechItOut said:
How much do you think it would cost to securely take prisoners out of prison and get them to pick up litter? Probably twice as much as it costs to keep them locked up all day.
As for building roads, or indeed anything useful, I'd say quality rather than quantity comes into effect here.
How about just digging roads/ditches/canals/railways etcAs for building roads, or indeed anything useful, I'd say quality rather than quantity comes into effect here.
If they are all chained together you only need a handful of guards, which would be much much cheaper than employing 15 litter pickers!
Petrolhead_Rich said:
So, why are they not out building roads, digging out ditches, picking up litter? Chain them all together and give them a brush each then send them down the road, granted this will loose the jobs of some street sweepers, but they could get a job as a prison guard/trainer now that we have this extra income from prisons.
Absolutely agree with you. We should at least get them doing something useful - for their benefit and our own. The present system is a disgrace.Perhaps when the current clean-up of UK policing has been resolved the powers-that-be will have the sense to get on and sort out a thoroughly questionable prison service.
Corsair7 said:
Tsippy said:
Is it not possible to outsource prisons to other countries? Might work out cheaper to pay someone like India or Russia to keep them in their prisons?
I love that idea. 80 to a cell, 45 degree C temp, aids and murder rife.....that will defo deter more crims....
thole prisons. I bet the current human rights infested prison population st their pants quicker than you can shove a broken broom up a rapists bottom!We should change prisons to be like these in Alabama:
Watched a documentary a bit back that showed the governor of Alabama talking to the prisoners, a number of them said it really put them off coming back into prison, I think they also showed a decrease in re offending since the program was introduced!
Cut costs and make the prisoners pay for themselves!
As for the point above, of course it becomes difficult to implement when it means forcing people out of their jobs, but realistically we could keep the current road sweepers and get them doing better jobs at ZERO cost increase, this is about making prisons pay, it doesn't mean we have to cut the costs of the highways department!
Watched a documentary a bit back that showed the governor of Alabama talking to the prisoners, a number of them said it really put them off coming back into prison, I think they also showed a decrease in re offending since the program was introduced!
Cut costs and make the prisoners pay for themselves!
As for the point above, of course it becomes difficult to implement when it means forcing people out of their jobs, but realistically we could keep the current road sweepers and get them doing better jobs at ZERO cost increase, this is about making prisons pay, it doesn't mean we have to cut the costs of the highways department!
Tsippy said:
Is it not possible to outsource prisons to other countries? Might work out cheaper to pay someone like India or Russia to keep them in their prisons?
Greece, you want another Bail-Out, ok you take all our scum and lock them up and we will give you another bail out.....
Jobs a good 'un!
Richie200 said:
I think the best way to get productive use out of the prison system would be to make the inmates do 10hrs on a cycling/running machine a day with the machines connected to the national grid.
Only problem with that is that they would be superfit criminals when they get out and the police wouldn't be able to catch them when they reoffend 
.Richie200 said:
I think the best way to get productive use out of the prison system would be to make the inmates do 10hrs on a cycling/running machine a day with the machines connected to the pasedos, murderers and repeat offenders.
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