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An Anonymous Coward suggests the following story: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/asa-rns081616.php
Ramen noodles are supplanting the once popular cigarettes as a form of currency among state prisoners, but not in response to bans on tobacco products within prison systems, finds a new study.
Instead, study author Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona School of Sociology, found that inmates are trying to figure out ways to better feed themselves as certain prison services are being defunded.
[...] "Prison staff members as well as members of the inmate population provided narratives of the history of changes in prison food -- the past few decades have seen steady decreases in the quality and quantity of inmate food," Gibson-Light said.
"Prisoners are so unhappy with the quality and quantity of prison food that they receive that they have begun relying on ramen noodles -- a cheap, durable food product -- as a form of money in the underground economy," he said. "Because it is cheap, tasty, and rich in calories, ramen has become so valuable that it is used to exchange for other goods."
Those other goods include other food items, clothing, hygiene products, and even services, such as laundry and bunk cleaning, Gibson-Light said. Others use ramen noodles as bargaining chips in gambling when playing card games or participating in football pools, he said.
[...] "Throughout the nation, we can observe prison cost-cutting and cost-shifting as well as changes in the informal economic practices of inmates," he said. "Services are cut back and many costs are passed on to inmates in an effort to respond to calls to remain both tough on crime and cost effective."
The US authorities and most citizens prefer a punitive instead of a rehabilitative approach, despite the fact that most prisoners are eventually let out of prison alive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2016, @12:38AM
Because it is repugnant to offer services that aren't available to the population at large. As it is, nearly $80,000 in services are available just warehousing prisoners. Exactly how much more should be spent to help further "develop" them?
Not to mention for a large segment of prisoners, it's not like they are some Oliver Twist character who only broke the law out of necessity. Many had options, but pissed them away or flat out don't care who they hurt to get ahead.
Take Bernie Ebbers for example. Exactly how much more should be spent to rehabilitate him?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pTamok on Thursday August 25 2016, @06:57AM
As much a necessary.
It is cheaper to rehabilitate than not. You can ignore the moral arguments, but rehabilitation decreases the recidivism rate so that once they leave prison, people are less likely to commit further crime (or alternatively, have learned how not to get caught, if you are cynical). It is by not having a rehabilitation programme that you waste tax dollars. Recidivism has the cost to society of the additional crime, plus the cost of incarceration again.
If you are concerned about tax dollars, you should support rehabilitation. Really.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2016, @12:30PM
It is cheaper to rehabilitate than not.
What an absolutely empty statement. You've already assumed the conclusion before we began. If you spend infinity dollars towards rehabilitation compared to $80,000/yr towards incarceration, you haven't saved any money at all.
So "rehabilitation" is nebulous. Exactly what are you proposing?
Education? Counseling? Job training?
Except all of those things were available prior to prison, so exactly how will spending more in a prison setting improve outcomes? Not to mention those things are available now in prison, so exactly what changes should be made to current programs?
Again, take Bernie Ebbers as an example. Exactly what changes to the current system would you make to reform him?
What a hand-wavy response.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:57PM
You're not going to spend 'infinite dollars'. You're just spewing idiocy.
You're also forgetting that once rehabilitated, the individual's contributions to society now also have a cascading/multiplying effect. Not only do you no longer have to incarcerate them, but the individual starts producing, paying taxes, etc...
I don't think you actually know what is going on in prison or how many of the people in there end up there. I'm not saying they're all angels, not at all. But I *am* saying that many people who get processed by that system would be better off by being guided to becoming a productive citizen again and are very much willing to go that route. Society would also be better off and you wouldn't spend 80k over and over again for each of these prisoners going through the system over and over and over and over again.
Please *think* before you start saying unwise things