kalishnikov wrote:btownmeggy wrote:Jamie wrote:Surfing the net for recreation would be a waste of taxpayers money.
Most states have a minimum ratio of guards to prisoners that must be maintained. If they have too few guards, they have to compensate, which usually means sending prisoners to private or out-of-states jails and prisons, which costs the taxpayers of a particular county or state more money than simply hiring a new guard would. But, it's VERY VERY difficult to find new guards. The turnover rate for guards is very high and it's usually very difficult and costly to find and train new hires. Why is the turnover so high? Because it's very dangerous to work in a jail or prison. Assaults on guards by prisoners are very common, and of course, no one wants to work in a environment where they are always in peril of having the shit beat out of them. When overwhelmed with nothing to do, inmates, approximately 60% of whom are mentally ill, tend to be destructive towards themselves, the people around them, and government property. So what do detention centers do to prevent attacks on guards, suicides, and destruction of property? They try to keep prisoners amused and occupied, with things like chess, checkers, tv, gainful employment, and, where available, the internet.
Hope this helps.
I'd be curious to see some sources for these statistics/facts you've presented here.
Until then I say bullshit propaganda to you, sir.
Upon further inspection, my 60% assertion was too high. 40% seems to be more accurate. I will excuse myself by saying that I was drunk when I wrote this post.
I assume this was your primary point of contention.
A researcher from the Justice Center at the Council on State Governments has made a nice powerpoint presentation that addresses some of these issues apparently so offensive to you:
http://justicecenter.csg.org/files/JailOvercrowdingConference2708.ppt
In conclusion, I'd like to say, I'm a lady. Not a sir.
Oh, one other thing, what sort of propaganda do you think I would be disseminating? Do you think I work for an ISP trying to get county jails to buy more bandwidth or something?