Missouri Pulls Video Games From Prison

AP on Yahoo - Technology ^ | 12/2/04 | AP

[stainlessbanner]

Pac-Man for everyone.

[sandbar]

I can't afford to get my kids a Playstation 2, I had to buy a Playstation 1 used (for Christmas this year, how many years after it came out?) and the VIOLENT criminals get VIDEO GAMES??? That's what they call PUNISHMENT???

This is crap.

[notfornothing]

Why do they not get full-size arcade style games?? This is an outrage! Someone call the ACLU.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

I heard that prisons were using more career training videos these days. Didn't know this is what they meant.

[Sprite518]

This is what is wrong with prison. We need to go back to the days of prison when it was ran like the movie Cool Hand Luke. Chain gangs, and the hot box. Prison should not be fun.

[Moral Hazard]

The only proper punishment for these inmates: Make them play Barbie Horse Adventure!

[Chode]

Murderers GOT VIDEOGAMES??? just damn...

[Popman]

The games were paid for from inmates' purchases — mostly of snacks — at the prison canteen. The canteen generates up to $20,000 monthly and a committee of corrections officials, prison staffers and several inmates decides how to spend it.

I understand your frustration. These CRIMINALS should be have it so bad that never want to return.

But, it looks like they get to pay for their own games, not Joe Average Citizen

[Old Warthog]

They should pull out the weight training equipment, too. No need to get these people "buffed up" before they get out. Let 'em eat all the Twinkies and other junk food they can stuff in. Make 'em easier to catch.

[dfwgator]

We need to go back to the days of prison when it was ran like the movie Cool Hand Luke.

What do you mean they didn't have fun in Cool Hand Luke? They got to watch "Lucille" wash her car, didn't they?

[ghitma]

"Jacqueline Helfgott, a professor at Seattle University who has studied the effects of violent movies and video games on criminal behavior, said such media can have a negative effect on inmates. "

Wow what insight!! No kidding!! Where would we be without
professors like that, her grasp of the obvious is remarkable!

[Another-MA-Conservative]

This is what is wrong with prison. We need to go back to the days of prison when it was ran like the movie Cool Hand Luke. Chain gangs, and the hot box. Prison should not be fun.

Ditto. I remember as a kid touring an old prison in Connecticut - Old Newgate Prison - it was copper mine. The prisoners literally lived in dark, dank caves and spent their time mining copper. Even as a kid I remember thinking, "...and why are we not still using this as a prison?"

Prison isn't punishment anymore. It's a lifestyle, glorified by this repugnant hip-hop gangsta youth subculture.

And we're paying for it all.

[csvset]

Them clothes got laundry numbers on 'em. You remember your number and always wear the ones that has your number. Any man forgets his number spends the night in the box.

These here spoons, you keep with ya. Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the box.

There's no playin' grab-ass or fightin' in the building. You got a grudge against another man, you fight him Saturday afternoon. Any man playin' grab-ass or fightin' in the building spends a night in the box.

First bell is at five minutes of eight...Last bell is at eight. Any man not in his bunk at eight spends a night in the box.

There's no smokin' in the prone position in bed. If you smoke, you must have both legs over the side of your bunk. Any man caught smokin' in the prone position in bed spends the night in the box.

You'll get two sheets. Every Saturday, you put the clean sheet on the top and the top sheet on the bottom. The bottom sheet you turn into the laundry boy. Any man turns in the wrong sheet spends a night in the box.

No one will sit in the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man with dirty pants on sittin' on the bunks spends a night in the box.

Any man don't bring back his empty pop bottle spends a night in the box.

Any man loud-talkin' spends a night in the box.

You got questions, you come to me...Any man don't keep order spends a night in the box.

[G32]

Oh come on, let them play Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Not allowing them to is akin to torture.

[MEGoody]

I don't think the money from purchases made by the inmates should be used to buy video games and exercise equipment for the inmates. I think it should be used to reimburse the taxpayers for the money spent on giving these criminals the bare necessities.

Prison populations have grown significantly. I am of the opinion that going to prison is not much of a deterrent any more. Some criminals have it better behind bars than they do at home.

[Born Conservative]

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas for everyone...

[cake_crumb]

NOBODY who works at this prison has a kid with a PS2? Exactly why did a REPORTER have to inform prison officials about the graphic violence of those games after the murderers etc had been playing with them for "several months"? Where are the guards? Why are such games sold anywhere, for that matter?

[cake_crumb]

" This is an outrage! Someone call the ACLU."

Argh! That was the question I was originally going to ask before getting side tracked with the other questions :

How long before the ACLU SUES to have these violent games returned to the violent prisoners?

[Sprite518]

Granted and what could they do about it? LOL!