[sasquatch2]

This younger generation would faint at the grub we were thankful for a long time ago and far far away.

SOS (chipped beef on toast) for example. As long as it was hot and plentiful, you fueled up.

I approve Joe Arpaio’s policy.

Do the crime---do the time---check your rights at the door---pick'em up on the way out.

[ridenrain]

I wouldn't really have a problem with feeding the prisoners decent food, even with some variety, as long as they did some work and did what they were told. Food is a pretty cheap way to keep morale high, and a box full of assholes costs a lot more than reasonable food.

[sasquatch2]

One of the matters that I ponder is do these guys follow these diets on the outside?

Most cons emerge better feed than when they went in.

[QBall]

xerxes xerxes:

So what? If you go to prison you aren't allow to follow your religious beliefs?

I think the fact they are in prison shows they're not following their religious beliefs to begin with. If they are, I don't think it a religious belief we would, as a society, want to encourage.

[sasquatch2]

QBall

$1:

I think the fact they are in prison shows they're not following their religious beliefs to begin with. If they are, I don't think it a religious belief we would, as a society, want to encourage.

[Yogi]

xerxes xerxes:

Yogi Yogi:

xerxes xerxes:

So what? If you go to prison you aren't allow to follow your religious beliefs?

I'm going to 'dump this question' right back in your lap! In YOUR opinion, what would constitute 'just punishment'?
If YOU were in charge of setting out the 'standards', what would the 'basics' be? Keeping in mind of course, that a lot of people ended up in jail by comitting crimes against 'the working poor' who are scambling from payday to payday, all the while knowing that a portion of their taxes are going towards 'coddling' prisoners! should prisoners actually have better living standards than many who are paying for THEIR upkeep?

Then I would say that a lot of the time, confinement is often punishment enough. Think about it. One of the most vital freedoms we enjoy is the ability to go and do as we please. The act of locking someone up for 23 hours a day and putting them on a regimented schedule is a direct repudiation of that freedom. Any sort of demeaning or dehumanizing treatment after that, to me, smacks of petty revenge.

I'm afraid I don't see why allowing prisoners to keep to their religiously mandated diets is coddling (though, on a philosophical level I think religious diets are BS).

But allow me to dump a question back in your lap. How do you define coddling? I ask because, depending on the person, coddling can be defined as keeping a prisoner alive in the first place.

MY view: Coddling;

Anything that is above or beyond the basic necessitties to keep a prisoner physically healthy and reasonably sane.ie. see my suggested menu in previous post.

Education towards the betterment of ones future would not be considered coddling. Rather such education should be mandatory. COMPLETION REQUIRED prior to ones release from the penal institute.Regardless of their crime, the sentence handed down would be long enough for the offender to complete all requirements set out.( If one didn't have a high school diploma when they went in, they certainly would have one before they got out) Talk about incentive! To be followed with 500 hours of community service per each year, or portion thereof, of incarceration. Also mandatory would be SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION of counselling as deemed necessary by psychological evaluation.
This of course would only apply to those who were deemed 'rehabilitatable'.
For those who are sentenced to 'life with no possibility of parole', the punishment would be harsh indeed. The doors to their 6x9's would be welded shut. Opened only to remove their mortal remains and hose the cell down in preparation for the next occupant.In the mean time all they would receive is '3 hots and a cot'. No knowledge or news of the 'outside world'. No medical care whatsoever, no interaction with ANY but their jailers, EVER!
Oh yah. The operation of our penal system, including that which is aimed at young offenders should be turned over to the military and should be run as a military prison is run. I'll bet they could damn soon 'trim the fat'off the prison budget!