They should reveal all their gamertags so we can tease them for being in prison.

But since that can't be done anymore, I wonder if I ever met any of them. Did they ever have new-gen consoles in the first place?

um, what's wrong with giving them games? the point of prisons shouldn't be strictly a place of punishment but also that of rehabilitation. and to achieve the latter, they need a certain bit of downtime from the high levels of stress that they're already under. the former's already been achieved from removing most of their freedoms (though not their liberties) from society. it's the mentality that prisoners should be in prison strictly for the purposes of punishment that leads to idiotic posts like these. if you can give them books, you can give them games to pass the time.

If prisoners want to be rehabilitated, they can take study-by-mail courses or find Jesus/Allah. They don't need to be playing Halo.

Only Wii is new-gen. 360 and PS3 are next-gen, which is a retarded label as they are now current-gen.

uptonogood.

I'm relieved you think so.

Wow, come on now.

Make them pick up trash and teach them how to find actual jobs. Give them books to read. If you believe the myth that prison is about rehabilitation, then these are the things you should promote. Giving them toys and games does nothing but make their stay in prison more fun, and sorry, but 'fun' is not what prison should be about.

i believe in using games for rehabilitation for everyone other than criminals, call me old fashioned, but i don't think they should be allowed tax payer funded access to something that is only going to result in my ass be handed to me in any various multiplayer game.

Apparently they're going to take away their iPhones and guns and free access to young virgins next.

redzie -

the vast majority of people in prison are people who really have no right to be there at all other than cos they broke a law that probably doesn't even need to be in existence. but let's face the fact that the laws that are passed to imprison people are written by legislators whom are voted into office by those same poor folk who can't afford those "luxury" goods. what are laws other than a form of infringement on liberty? we can go that route and figure out why certain laws are in place and why prison populations in western democracies are exploding. it's not just the poor families whose tax dollars are being used to fund prisons -- they want to fund those prisons for a reason.

@uptonogood

It's how the money is spent is the problem here. There are better things that can be provided to rehabilitate prisoners (Books, Religion, Skills training, livelihood projects). One xbox or two wouldn't hurt but a lot of them were put in there. Rather than other places (orphanages, hospitals) where they should be put in like how Jim Sterling mentioned in his previous post. I would rather have my money go to provide a public school kid's free lunch (no matter how horrible they are, I had them too) than a prisoner's copy of Halo 3.

@ uptonogood

Uhh in all honesty ... I don't want my local sociopath, playing any version of FPS' or Manhunt. That's not called rehab. I would think to a model mentally inept prison inmate that might be just a way to pass the time. They need social skills. Not the joke, of doing nothing all day except reinacting what they did to homie on the street about 2 months ago every level. What I just described is not rehab.

foxhound009 -- they probably don't let 360's near those prisons cos the upkeep would be too costly in the long run; what with all the constant repairs and all. :D

redzie -- you've got how the law works all backasswards. who dictates where resources are allocated and by what measure are those standards upheld? the simple answer is that they cannot be upheld by human measures as people are still people. who cares about the hospitals in the UK -- they have socialized universal healthcare. prisons are large facilities where vast amounts of people are held and they need a certain level of activity to keep them placid -- for lack of a better word. you can't group orphanages, hospitals, and prisons into same broad groups as those three forms of institutions carry three very different functions for the state. believe it or not, other countries don't ill treat their prisoners. every one of you have skewed sense of justice based on our law system. other western societies have vastly different forms of law, crime, and punishment. and that's why this thread is so frustrating. the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" mentality is a third world prison/american way of looking at the legal system.

HAHAHA!

First thing I thought of is a 360 doent have built-in wireless. One more demographic that it can reach that ps3 cant touch!

If criminals don't fear going back to jail what is stopping them from commiting more crimes? Fear is what keeps most people in line. Fear of going to jail, fear of what happens in there. They are criminals! It doesn't matter how the laws are made, or who makes them, they are the laws in the country where you live, you must obey them or face the consequences, period. If you don't like it, tough, either move somewhere else, or take the time and get off your ass and try to get them to work they way you want them to, good luck there. Prisoners should have access to the things that will make them a more productive, and more importantly a law abiding citizen, and video games are really the last thing that would do that. Job/skill training goes way further than playing games.

Having them is a headache that you don't need. Lets say that you could have them, what games should the be allowed to play, halo, manhunt, gran theft auto? Now you have to appoint a committee to decide what games they should be allowed to play, ones that would help in their reabilitation. Costing taxpayers even more money. Its something they just don't need.

And yes the internet capabilities of the devices is something I don't want any criminal having acess to. It gives them yet 1 more avenue to influence people outside of the prison, be it gangs or whatever.

If I were a prisoner, I would much rather find a corner to hide in and read a book.

But, honestly, couldn't we just give them a PS3 and a copy of Lair? Or is that too cruel?

uptonogood is an idiot. im sure when you have kids that play ps3s and 360 games with inmates who are in jail for child molestation you'll change your views in an instant.

I'm sure if they killed people in games, they would have no need to kill in real life. They'd see killing as tedious and sometimes hard to control so they'd naturally lose interest. Unless they played gears. Then we'd be fucked.

Honestly, criminals in prison should not be allowed to have access to any games consoles. For crying out loud, this country seems so intent on satisfying the criminal's rights, but not the victims of crime... GRRRRRRRR!

Furthermore, since there is this gang problem in America filtering its way over here, you think its a good idea to allow gang members to organise things via internet on their XBOX 360s? Certainly no access to them in the USA, surely...?

Idiots lol.

Eschatos, it doesn't matter. The point of prison is that you're being punished for your violation(s) of the law and human rights. By commtting crimes, you're essentially giving up your rights to these basic pleasures. Games are a luxury, plain and simple. They should not have such a luxury. I don't give a fuck whether or not they want games or TVs or porn or whatever. If they don't want to be deprived of those things, they shouldn't have committed the crime in the first place.

This is going to be long.

The fact that there’s even a discussion here, sparked mostly by uptonogood, is absolutely ludicrous. Ignoring uptonogood’s baseless statement that “the vast majority of people in prison are people who ... broke a law that probably doesn’t even need to be in existence,” let’s err on the side of caution here and assume that the majority of people who are in prison do deserve to be there, because, as MechaMonkey worded it so beautifully, these people have wronged society in some way. In other words, they did something illegal, like stealing or killing or maiming, etc., and a jury of their peers determined that they should serve hard time for that offense. I’m not saying that our justice system (I’m in America, but the same could be said for Britain’s) is perfect and that it always metes out punishment in a just manner, but let’s assume for the sake of argument that it does in the vast majority of cases.

As far as I’m concerned, if you wronged society in some way, and you’re in jail because of it, you shouldn’t have nearly as many privileges as the average citizen. I’m not advocating cruel punishment here, or the revoking of basic liberties and human rights, but come on — you can’t seriously argue that prisoners should have video game systems for recreation! I don’t care what the games are — it doesn’t matter if they’re playing Gears of War or Brain Age — they shouldn’t be allowed to play video games, period. Time outdoors? Sure. Books? Absolutely. Learning a trade? Yes. But definitely not video games. They should get basic amenities and constructive things to do with their time; that doesn’t include video games. In other words, if it’s something that many members of the law-abiding citizenry don’t have access to, or if it’s something above and beyond what you need to survive, then prisoners shouldn’t have access to it. That doesn’t include video games; hell, in my opinion, that barely includes television. Our tax dollars at work, eh?

OHHHH!! I'm up for farming Gold at Her Majesty's Pleasure, as they say.:D
Just let me use my WoW account.

"So Sterling, why do you hate inmates so much?"

Well, thanks for putting words in my mouth, mate. I don't hate them, per se, unless they're torturers, rapists or pedophiles of course. It's safe to say I have no respect for them, though. A criminal is someone who has gone against the very society that grants him the freedom he enjoys. If he betrays society, I believe he revokes the right to those freedoms. It's very, very simple and I'm sorry that people like you don't seem to comprehend such an elementary equation.

"Why you want their serving time be a total nightmare?"

This is such a ridiculous question. It should be self explanatory why I want prison to be unpleasant. Not, as you put it, a "concentration camp" (thanks for evoking Godwin's Law there), but a place that nobody should ever want to go to. If Prison was fun, what kind of deterrent does a criminal have? Again, this is simplicity incarnate and it baffles me that you can't grasp it.

Criminals are, for the most part, selfish individuals who don't think about the harm they cause to others. As such, the only thing they understand is harm towards themselves. An unpleasant prison experience is the only way you can expect them to rehabilitate if that's what you believe prison is for, since the selfish individual understands that they are being negatively affected for what they did.

"Why you believe inmates dont deserve any kind of fun?"

Because they're ... inmates? I don't believe the questions some people are prepared to ask.