So you may have caught on by now that I advocate for gay rights. No, this isn't another gay rights post, but I need to preface this by saying that I think people should be treated fairly and I'm a general fan of human rights.
Now let's talk about prisoners' rights. Prisoners are in prison because they have broken the law badly enough, or enough times, that they are now locked up. This is what sets them apart from any other human that falls under "human rights" (color, sexuality, gender, religion, etc.).
We don't torture our prisoners. We don't starve them or deny them medical help. We give them three meals a day and a roof over their heads. We even give them recreational time. I get that prisoners are still people that should be treated humanely, but you don't become a prisoner by being an upstanding, law-abiding citizen.
I've been to countries where, if you're in prison, someone outside of the prison has to bring you food if you're going to eat at all. I've also been places where the people would give up a limb to live in the conditions of an American prison. Also, there are American soldiers fighting places that are hotter, dirtier, and more confined than any American prison.
This is all leading to the fact that Jason and I like to watch prison shows. So the other night we were watching one about the toughest sheriff in America who runs a prison with a "tent city" as part of it. Protesters love to line the outside of the tent city to rant about the terrible conditions.
The tent city is an outdoor collection of large tents with bunks lined up under the tents. In the summer, the heat can make the temperature spike to 120 degrees. That's pretty high. I can get why people would be unhappy with that. The catch? If you don't want to be a part of the tent city, you don't have to! You can refuse your assignment and be put in a cell inside like normal prisoners. You can leave at any time. So you can literally choose your prison conditions. I no longer have sympathy for the tent city people.
Then, the show features a prisoner who is just appalled with the conditions and thinks everything in inhumane, etc. He's well spoken. The sheriff comes around to talk with the prisoners about the tent city. When the sheriff talks to this particular prisoner, does he complain about the high temperatures? Nope. Does he complain about food or shower schedules or anything else that might be ever considered inhumane by anyone? No.
And I quote:
"How come we only have a few channels on the TV? I wanted to watch the Clippers game last night but the only one we got is the Lakers."
I'm sorry....WHAT?!
I have exactly one and a half channels on a lucky day, when my digital antenna is in a good mood. I don't pay for my own cable and you want my tax money to go to cable for a prison so that you can get ESPN2!? Boy you must be out yo mind.
If I ran a prison, by the time the people got out, they would have forgotten what a TV looks like. How's about we give prisoners BOOKS? It's this old technology where people learn things through reading words on a page. Then you flip the page, and there are more words to read. Repeat.
I might also make the prisoners work all day to keep the prison running, so that taxpayer money didn't have to go to paying civilian employees. Outside of prisons you have to work to feed yourself, why not inside the prison?
I'm not saying we should torture anyone or be inhumane. But the fact that prisoners are complaining about not having a deluxe cable package is insanely frivolous. Read a book. Learn a skill. Start a therapy group. Take the offered GED classes. Play cards. Think about what you did wrong and how you'll rectify it at the end of your sentence.
