Crime & Punishment

A few weeks ago I got into a heated debate with some friends. It originally started as a conversation about the minimum wage and how impossible it would be to try and make it solely on that income. Someone commented that it seems unfair that prisoners have a better quality of life than people that work full time making minimum wage.
Some of the comments that were made were along these lines.

They should not have access to the outside world via television.
They should be fed bread and water or the bare minimum to survive.
They should be stacked 6 deep in a cell.
They should work on chain gangs.
There should be no access to medical care or psychological care.
If they are sentenced to death it should be carried out within 48 hours of the conviction.

I will be honest with you. Part of me agrees with some of these statements. It isn’t supposed to be easy. Another part of me vehemently disagrees with these statements and I will tell you why.

If everyone that went to prison was there for the rest of their life than providing the basic minimum for living conditions could be an option.
The fact is that only 1 in 11 prisoners serves a life sentence. The average amount of amount of time served is only 48 months. That means that a convicted felon is released out into society after only 4 years in prison.
What happens in that 4 years will affect how that person acts in society at large.

Here are 2 examples of people who would serve prison time.

James was an upstanding citizen. He owned his own business and was married with children. He had never been arrested but he had a secret. He molested his daughters for over 2 years before his wife found video tapes of the assaults.
He ran but was apprehended and sentenced to 35 years in prison. He lives in fear every day that someone will find out what he was convicted of and that he will be killed in prison. He works in the music room of the prison and makes 35¢ per hour and receives $8 per month to buy amenities as the rest goes to court costs, reparations and child support.

Bob was driving at night and accidentally fell asleep at the wheel, hitting and killing a pedestrian. He is sentenced to 7 years in prison for vehicular homicide. Before this he had never been arrested and had never been in any previous accidents. He is a retired iron worker and has been married for 30 years with 2 grown children and 4 grandchildren.
He works at the prison taking catalogue orders and makes 75¢ per hour. He shares a cell with James.

Obviously James deserves to be in prison. Most people would say that he should rot in prison and that to give him more than bread and water and a hole to crap in would be a travesty.
How do you think that Bob should be treated? He is a convicted felon along with James.

James & Bob will eventually be living in society along with the rest of us. Should we treat them poorly in prison and expect that they will miraculously be an asset to society when released?
Should be treat them as people, allow them to earn small privileges like paying $4 per month for cable in their cell and to purchase things like coffee from the prison store? Is it our burden as tax-payers to provide counseling and other mental health services so that the chance that they become repeat criminals is reduced?

I can honestly see both sides of the issue. I think that prison shouldn’t be a walk in the park. It should be difficult. But at what point do we have to realize that even though they are criminals, they are also people.
If someone goes to prison and is treated like an animal in a cage, what kind of person do you think will be released when he is done serving his sentence?
I have a strong feeling that it won’t be someone we would want to be around.