Prison vs. Work

[Gauracandra]

I received this from another listing:

 

IN PRISON ... you spend the majority of your time in an 8 x 10 cell;

AT WORK ... you spend the majority of your time in a 6 x 8 cubicle.

 

IN PRISON ... you get three meals a day;

AT WORK ... you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.

 

IN PRISON ... you get time off for good behaviour;

AT WORK...you get rewarded for good behaviour with more work.

 

IN PRISON ... the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you;

AT WORK ... you must carry around a security card and open all the doors

for yourself.

 

IN PRISON ... you can watch TV and play games;

AT WORK ... you get fired for watching TV and playing games.

 

 

IN PRISON ... they allow your family and friends to visit;

AT WORK ... you can't even speak to your family.

 

IN PRISON ... all expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required;

AT WORK ... you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they

deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

 

IN PRISON ... you spend most of your life looking through bars from inside

wanting to get out.

AT WORK ... you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside

bars.

 

IN PRISON ... you must deal with sadistic wardens;

AT WORK... they are called managers.

 

 

[amanpeter]

True perhaps, but at work you get to look at the GIRLS!!!

[animesh]

What will girls do?

[Bhaktavasya]

 

some of them are doing (in the good old U.S. of A.) lengthy prison terms for something as benign as selling, possessing and/or cultivating marijuana. Not everyone wasting away in a prison cell is a violent, potential axe-murderer.

[Bhaktavasya]

The 3 strikes and you're out law (in California) was designed for those who can't afford a good lawyer and for the ecomonic well-being of privatized prisons who now have a dirt-cheap long term labour pool to provide (for example) 'Prison Blues' bluejeans and shirts to places like China.

 

One of the things Jesus is supposed to do when he appears again is 'set the prisoners free. A double meaning (at least); setting free the prisoners of illusion free as well as the prisoners held for no good reason other than political and ecomonic (which is no good reason at all) with the message of love and the truth that will set both free.

 

[This message has been edited by Bhaktavasya (edited 08-13-2001).]

[talasiga]

Originally posted by Bhaktavasya:

Not everyone wasting away in a prison cell is a violent, potential axe-murderer.

Ex murderers are understandable - but an "axe" murderer?

 

 

[Bhaktavasya]

I was exaggerating while trying to make a point that many people who are incarcerated with lengthy sentences are not a danger to society.

 

Originally posted by talasiga:

Ex murderers are understandable - but an "axe" murderer?

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

<h3 align=center>Women In Prison</h3>

 

Women have become the hidden victims of the state's zeal for

incarceration, as the number of California prisoners surged past the

100,000 mark in April of 1991.

 

California now has the uncertain distinction of having the most

women prisoners in the nation, as well as the world's largest women's

prison.

 

Since 1980, the number of women imprisoned in the us has tripled.

Now, on any given day, over 90,000 women are incarcerated in us jails

and prisons.

 

In 1992, there were 50,493 women incarcerated in federal and state

prisons. Amazingly, the rate of women's imprisonment grew from 6 per

100,000 in 1925 to 37 per 100,000 in 1992. The rate of

imprisonment in California is approximately 45 per 100,000.

 

It is important to add that the above data includes only time

served for women who have been released; therefore, the numbers

mentioned above may give the false impression that overall, women are

serving shorter sentences. In reality, that isnot the case.

 

When it comes down to it, this policy direction will not be

beneficial to families, nor will it keep families

intact.

 

<cite>According to the May 1994 issue report of Women's Economic

Agenda Project</cite></p>

 

<h3>Eleven things you should know about women in prison in the us:</h3>

 

• There are over 90,000 women in prison in the us today. The

  majority are in prison for economic crimes. The most typical

  convictions resulting in imprisonment for women are property crimes,

  such as check forgery and illegal credit card use. 80% of women in

  prison report incomes of less than $2,000 per year in the year before

  their arrest, and 92% report incomes under $10,000.

   

• Of the women convicted of violent crimes, the vast majority were

  convicted for defending themselves or their children from abuse. In

  California alone there are 600 women in prison for killing their

  abusers in self-defense. Average prison terms are twice as long for

  killing husbands as for killing wives.

   

• 54% of women in prison are women of color.

   

• Ninety percent of women in prison are single mothers. They lose

  contact with their children, sometimes forever. There are 167,000

  children in the us whose mothers are incarcerated.

   

• The average age of women in prison is 29, and 58% have not

  finished high school.

   

• Racism and economic discrimination are inextricably linked to

  sexism in our culture, creating severe inequalities in the court

  system and the prison system. For example, Black women are twice as

  likely to be convicted of killing their abusive husbands than are

  white women. Black women, on average, receive longer jail time and

  higher fines than do white women for the same crimes.

   

• 25% of political prisoners in the us are women.

   

• The number of women in prison has increased 138% in the last ten

  years. This is partly due to the worsening of economic conditions for

  women, and also due to the increase in arrest rates due to the "war on

  crime" and "war on drugs".

   

• Women prisoners spend on average 17 hours a day in their cells,

  with one hour outside for exercise. Compare to men prisoners, who

  spend, on average, 15 hours a day in their cells, with 1.5 hours

  outside.

   

• The Women's High Security Unit at Lexington, KY, was closed in

  1988 because of a national and international human rights campaign.

  The prison kept the women in years of isolation in subterranean cells,

  conducted daily strip searches, allowed extreme sleep deprivation

  practices, and as policy, condoned a compete denial of privacy,

  including male guards watching the showers, and an intense campaign of

  sexual abuse.

   

• The late Senator Hart estimated that the annual cost of corporate

  crime was between $174-231 billion dollars, while the economic cost of

  "street crimes" (e.g. burglary and robbery) was $3-4 billion. We must

  look at why the state focuses on enforcing laws which penalize the

  types of actions take by poor and working class men and women while

  systematically ignoring the more destructive white-collar crimes.

 

[Bhaktavasya]

 

Thanks for putting out the word,BB.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Originally posted by Bhaktavasya:

Thanks for putting out the word,BB.

 

You're welcome, mataji.

 

For further info on the hellishness of the whole prison industry in California and elsewhere, check these links out.