Suicide Exposes Squalor in Texas Prison

After months alone in his cell, Scot Noble Payne finished 20 pages of letters, describing to loved ones the decrepit conditions of the prison where he was serving time for molesting a child.

[The Merm]

I really can't find any sorrow in my heart for a child molestor. Good riddance to him.

[American]

Sympathy for a child molester? I think not! Vile creatures!

[Horace Muldoon]

I think the issue here should not be the suicide or this particular inmate, but instead the concept of private firms running prisons. Prisons should not be run as torture chambers; when squalid, inhuman conditions exist, it speaks ill of our society and endangers us all. As Dostoevsky said, a society is measured by the condition of its prisons.
Corporations are by definition concerned only with profit, and they do not have the moral compasses to run prisons. This should be the domain only of the government.
Now, before the Michael Savage types start ganging up on me saying things like "you pathetic human rights advocate" and what-not, consider for a moment if you would have approved of your precious Scooter Libby being sent to a prison that had squalid conditions. While its laughable that this scenario would ever happen, the point I make is that inhuman incarceration conditions pose a potential threat to us all, not just anonymous criminals who get a moment of attention in the mass media news theater.

[c-ray-z]

You are absolutely right we should not have people living like that. the prison system is ineffective and expensive. You should have harsh but short punishments for crimes committed.
EX:Don't take 20 years to kill someone to kill that person. Get them out of the prison and six foot under.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Horace Muldoon wrote:

I think the issue here should not be the suicide or this particular inmate, but instead the concept of private firms running prisons. Prisons should not be run as torture chambers; when squalid, inhuman conditions exist, it speaks ill of our society and endangers us all. As Dostoevsky said, a society is measured by the condition of its prisons.
Corporations are by definition concerned only with profit, and they do not have the moral compasses to run prisons. This should be the domain only of the government.
Now, before the Michael Savage types start ganging up on me saying things like "you pathetic human rights advocate" and what-not, consider for a moment if you would have approved of your precious Scooter Libby being sent to a prison that had squalid conditions. While its laughable that this scenario would ever happen, the point I make is that inhuman incarceration conditions pose a potential threat to us all, not just anonymous criminals who get a moment of attention in the mass media news theater.

Well, if corporations run prisons and are concerned only with profit, wouldn't the easiest thing be to make it profitable for them to keep prisons nice?

[ETurnage]

The harder the better. Rehabilitation is a joke. Harsh conditions and maximum sentences after due process. Most inmates have more living room than the average Navy enlisted man. The average inmate has more creature comforts than those provided a combat infantryman in the routine performance of his duties. I could care less about a convicted criminals complaints. Put them back on road gangs, prison farms and rock quarries. High starch diets (potatoes, rice and dried beans) and all of the water they want to drink. The money saved could go toward additional C.O.'s.

[JSOG]

ETurnage wrote:

The harder the better. Rehabilitation is a joke. Harsh conditions and maximum sentences after due process. Most inmates have more living room than the average Navy enlisted man. The average inmate has more creature comforts than those provided a combat infantryman in the routine performance of his duties. I could care less about a convicted
criminals complaints. Put them back on road gangs, prison farms and rock quarries. High starch diets (potatoes, rice and dried beans) and all of the water they want to drink. The money saved could go toward additional C.O.'s.

<< Matthew 25 >>
English Revised Version
31 But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory: 32 and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: 33 and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in; 36 naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink? 38 And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me. 46 And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.