Are US prisons too easy on convicts?
- Thread starter MrDawn
- Start date
I don't know any convicts to really know what the system is truly like. I mean, we hear from the heads of the departments, but who knows what it's really like there day to day. I think that we don't send enough criminals to jail, tbh. They get off too easy by judges who don't want to give consequences for actions.
Having worked as a correctional officer for a few years... don't believe a lot of what you read about prisoners being "coddled".
Hell, here in Texas most of our prison facilities are still not air conditioned. Try working (or in a prisoners case living) in a big box with just a few barely adequate fans running to do exterior air exchange. When it's 101 outside, it's not any better inside. That's why they have water coolers stocked with ice water available in the day rooms and you have to go by the cells every hour offering ice water to the inmates.
In 2024 TDCJ had 41 heat related deaths. A 2022 study revealed that an average of 14 inmates a year died from he related deaths. One study reflected that between 2001 and 2019 13% of in custody deaths were heat related.
Now let's not even get into the food that they are served. Back when I first started in 1982 most of the food served in the system was produced on the units. And at that time, the food was pretty good. My last stint working there was in the early 2000's (getting enough time into retirement system to retire early and draw my pension). During that time, I would classify the food (both for offenders and officers) as pig slop. Even now the "naughty" offenders that like to throw food/utensils get the ever-present Nutritional Loaf (similar to the Nutraloaf used in many facilities in other states).
Think the worst cafeteria you ever ate at.... that will probably be a gourmet meal over what they now get in TDCJ.
They do have educational opportunities that the free world does not. Trade school and further education at no cost. They have also pretty much done away with the field force (which generated the locally grown fresh food they consumed) and have gone over to prepackaged products. And instant potatoes do not compare to real mashed potatoes at that level nor do canned green beans to fresh green beans. At one time TDCJ grew enough produce that they even sold the excess on the open market.
TDCJ started to get away from that when society changed and began looking at using offenders to grow their own food as "forced labor".
Hell, here in Texas most of our prison facilities are still not air conditioned. Try working (or in a prisoners case living) in a big box with just a few barely adequate fans running to do exterior air exchange. When it's 101 outside, it's not any better inside. That's why they have water coolers stocked with ice water available in the day rooms and you have to go by the cells every hour offering ice water to the inmates.
In 2024 TDCJ had 41 heat related deaths. A 2022 study revealed that an average of 14 inmates a year died from he related deaths. One study reflected that between 2001 and 2019 13% of in custody deaths were heat related.
Now let's not even get into the food that they are served. Back when I first started in 1982 most of the food served in the system was produced on the units. And at that time, the food was pretty good. My last stint working there was in the early 2000's (getting enough time into retirement system to retire early and draw my pension). During that time, I would classify the food (both for offenders and officers) as pig slop. Even now the "naughty" offenders that like to throw food/utensils get the ever-present Nutritional Loaf (similar to the Nutraloaf used in many facilities in other states).
Think the worst cafeteria you ever ate at.... that will probably be a gourmet meal over what they now get in TDCJ.
They do have educational opportunities that the free world does not. Trade school and further education at no cost. They have also pretty much done away with the field force (which generated the locally grown fresh food they consumed) and have gone over to prepackaged products. And instant potatoes do not compare to real mashed potatoes at that level nor do canned green beans to fresh green beans. At one time TDCJ grew enough produce that they even sold the excess on the open market.
TDCJ started to get away from that when society changed and began looking at using offenders to grow their own food as "forced labor".
I have seen American prisons in movies and I would say that those prisons can pass for luxury homes for some people. How can a prisoner be well fed and has access to the internet? Those things are not available in prisons in my country.
I don’t think American prisons are too soft on convicts, especially compared to the UK. From what I understand, prisons in the US are often harsher, with longer sentences and stricter punishment. In the UK, there’s usually more focus on rehabilitation and helping people not reoffend rather than just punishment. So I think the issue isn’t prisons being too soft, but whether they actually help people change before returning to society.
A lot of homeless in New Zealand break enough laws just go to to prison in the winter because why not? If you've got no home why would you pass up on three meals a day, warmth, and all of that? Sadly we have a real bad homeless problem and it's only getting worse.
I highly agree here. There's no coddling, but I know US prisons would still be way better than ones in Brazil, for instance. It's because rich countries can provide better prisons.
Note: the most coddled prisons would be in Norway I think, but perhaps it's too much.
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