I feel sick...
 

I was watching TV today, and they were airing some TV program about real life crimes.
This guy was dating this girl, and they were living together.
One day, the girl's jealous ex-girlfriend sent 7 or 9 people to beat him up.
The victim in question had called the emergency line and had the police on the line through the entire thing, so they managed to record it.
They played this on TV, and the guy was screaming before he passed out, his girlfriend screamed and cried throughout the whole thing while they beat him with fists, kicks and aluminium baseball bats.
It went on for several minutes before they left again, not even knowing if they had killed him.
The guy had a mark from the bat on his back, several cuts and damages all over the body, and I believe he broke some bones as well.
With this very solid evidence, they managed to convict them all.
The guy who put this team together got the maximum sentence for this kind of thing - 16 MONTHS! -.-"
This sickens me!
After just HEARING this go down, I was holding my head, almost screaming at the brutality of it, and 16 months later, they are free to do it again.
The victim however won't be free after 16 months, to this day his relationship with his girlfriend is over, he has post-traumatic stress, he is afraid of people and he spends all his time alone.
I can't understand these people, how can you bring yourself to hurt someone who never did anything to you?

I don't know. That -is- pretty brutal, though...all over a silly girl.

I really think all those guys should be jailed for life, or deported somewhere else.

Great plan Tam. "Oh hey, is that Australia speaking? I've got a present in the mail for you."

Imprison them for life, yes.
But Denmark's criminal punishment system is a joke. People in open prisons even have an internet connection now I hear.

That would be about the same sentence in the USA. In fact, in SLC they've been talking about making another prison because they are letting people out early because it is over crowded. I don't know why they can't have halfway houses with house arrest ankle braclets. I think the argument is people don't want to live next to criminals..... ~duh

Prisons serve a few purposes. I'm pretty sure that 'ensuring certain people can't use the internet' is not one of those purposes. A lot of inmates gain qualifications while they are incarcerated; what if they are using their internet connection to study? Besides which, the point of an open prison is to prepare lowest-risk offenders for reintegration before their release, it would undermine the purpose to deny them internet access.

I just think that prison is starting to look more like a vacation than a punishment.
This guy was whining about how they had blocked P2P so he could not download torrents.. When people in prison start to whine like that, it means they are not considering their punishment as they should.

No, it isn't.

Anarasha needs to stop opening his trap when it comes to things he doesn't understand.

And how do I not understand the prison system of Denmark??
I know that prison in other countries are brutal, but in Denmark, they are truly not that bad.
How is it supposed to teach them anything at all if they are locked up with internet access, cable TV, music and no psychological help to deal with why they comitted a crime in the first place?
We have people who get out of prison just to commit another crime so they can get back in.

You got the same prison laws as in Sweden and that means no internet access. The few times they do get access, then it's on monitored computers and for a very limited times, and only to be used in study purposes.

On the other hand, they can use laptops IF the prison allows it (not many does) and ONLY if it serves a purpose (as in the above example: like studying, etc), and even then then NIC's are removed and the computers get regularly checked for tampering etc. Recreational things like gaming consoles also have limited access times.

So prison is still just a place where you spend most of your time in a cramped room, just waiting to serve your time. Oh, and they do get to spend time with psychologists. Work, studies and rehabilitation are the three main branches that prisoners undergo.

The only thing they get that's better than most is the food. On average, a prisoner get better meals than school attending kids.

Are you sure about this?
I talked to a guy on a forum once who said he was in prison. He might've been just been making a really bad joke though.
I do still think that open prisons are too soft, internet connection or not.
Some prison cells are better than some of the dorm rooms I have seen out there.

You didn't listen to a word I said about open prisons, did you? Plus, I'm convinced you've never been to one.

UK prisons are actually somewhat of a joke. My brother has been in and out of prisons from normal to open types ( JCC you may have heard of Hewell Grange open prison perhaps? My brother served time there and also at North sea camp ) all his late teens and adult life until 4 years ago when he got back from a year in a Jamaican prison.

I can tell you now ( as he told me ) they have all kinds of stuff. Gyms, all kinds of classes ( art and so on ) TV, internet ect. They also have religious services ( generally Christian and Muslim ).

There is just as much drug use IN prisons as out of them.

Yes you get certain hours you have to be in and out of your cell, but otherwise they do have a lot of "privelleges" Open prisons of course the inmates are allowed to walk the grounds with no fences aside from the obvious main ones around the perimiters, and if they step out of the gates they are of course arrested again.

Open prisons often run a farm, and the inmates do work on the farm. My brother used to run the veg stall which was basically a hut/stand halfway along the road up to the prison building, and visitors can buy fresh veg there which brings extra income to the prison and gets rid of excess produce.

The prisoners also recieve a small wage of sorts , which they use to buy cigarettes, sweets ect from the prison shop ( like a little tuck shop really )


I would agree that some prisons, like a lot of the ones here, don't seem to really punish the inmates for their crimes, apart from restricitng their time out of cells to specific hours. Otherwise it's much like being back at school. On the other hand I do also agree that the classes ect are a good idea to help the inmates do something useful with themselves upon release if anyone will employ them that is , naturaly having a criminal record for burgurlary or car theft ect won't look too great on your CV no matter how well qualified you may be.


My brother would spend his time in prison, come out, and get caught for something else a year or two down the line and so on and so forth. But when he got caught trying to bring cannabis out of Jamaica, THAT was a fucking hard prison. He's been back 4 years now and has more than learned his lesson. Over there when they sentence you to a year's hard labour as he was, they actually mean hard labour. Digging roads with picks ect. Over here you get sentenced to 5 years and serve 18 months or something ridiculous.

I know that they are designed to prepare the inmates for life outside the walls, but how does leaving them alone with TV and other very nice perks prepare them for anything other than recharging their batteries so they can go out and continue afterwards?
I know that educating them in prison is a brilliant idea, but without proper psychological help, not a lot of them actually turn away from crime.
Open prisons however hopefully aren't for violent individuals, I don't think so, but I am not sure.
But in general, the danish prisons focus on all of the wrong things, and the one thing that is truly important has been cut out due to budget cuts by our god damned government. They would rather cut down taxes so the rich people get a lot of money rather than improve our society.
That has made them cut down on healthcare, education and appearently handling of prison inmates.

As far as I am aware most prisons do not provide cells with their own TV's. Most have a common room in which inmates can watch TV together.

And how do you know there is no Psychological help? Since Open prisons are obviously not for very violent or dangerous prisoners, their chances of needing such help are not high, and most of the inmates of such prisons are often moved from higher security units for displaying good behaviour and a good attitude ( as well as to make room for new inmates which is not such a good reasn to shift them of course ) .

High security prisons may well have such help for their higher risk inmates.

They probably do for the high risk inmates, but I do not believe there is psychological help. They did so many inside looks at it lately, and the prison guards said that they agreed that locking them in small rooms all alone without any real help wasn't the way to go. They literally had to threaten to harm themselves or kill themselves to get signed up for psychological help.
In Denmark, inmates are allowed to bring their own TV to their cells, and I am not sure, but I believe they can bring gaming consoles too. They are allowed to bring DVD players though.
Drug pushers and people convicted of selling drugs in general are moved to open prisons, and I know a guy like my uncle REALLY needed psychological help back then. He didn't get that really until he came out of there with skizofrenia and paranoia. Naturally, they could only help him with that to a certain degree. He was afraid that the gang he had sold drugs for would come and kill him for getting caught. They never came, though he often heard their voices in his head telling him to hurt himself or his family. In the end, he even saw them.
He eventually killed himself by overdosing his methadone and some illegal drug.

The only people who would consider any kind of prison to be some kind of positive experience are the people who are resigned to the fact that they're going to spend much of their life there and are trying to paint it in a better light, and the people who don't want to critically assess what a lack of liberty does to your soul.

I've spent a night or two in a jail cell and the only thing that made it tolerable was the knowledge that I getting the fuck out of there in the morning.

When people refer to minimum security facilities as "country club prisons", it's clear to me that they can't possibly have spent any time in a country club and a prison so as to know the difference.

If you think someone wasn't dealt severly enough for their crime, that's one thing. But let's not go on as if a person who gets enough niceties like a good exercise yard and internet access isn't going to feel like they're caged up and have lost their freedom to go where they want and do what they want.

My brother says they have radio and some internet (for study) in Texas.

When my cousin did time, he got fuck all luxuries .
When my best mate did time, did time in Clairvaux Prison, he was allowed a smoke once a day and that was it.
Another one of my close friends who did time in Lantin Prison was allowed books and that was it.

like Duckman said, though, prison is never a cakewalk, regardless of luxuries.

Fix'd.
Tooshortt.

You may want to consider taking up some sort of hobby to keep you occupied. After all, why bother feeling "sick" over something you have absolutely no control over? I believe apathy is the cure to your sickness.

I just can't possibly understand why some people in Denmark commit crimes just in order to go to jail. They literally come out and deal in drugs just to get locked up.

Ah, for fucks sake. Go out and get acquainted with Denmarks criminals and then you'll understand, real fast...

What kind of a life do you think you have when you get out of jail the first time? Or the second, etc. Even for minor misdemeanor, you get branded as a social pariah and your records will have that information in them. Try to explain that to a company you want to work at, even if you don't do that stupid shit anymore.

I don't see how worrying about prison will help. The deed has already been done.

Kicking your dog doesn't take the pee out of the carpet, and kicking the crap out of him brutally isn't going to make it stop.