Prison Reform

TLOPL is, as you probably all know, a prison colony. I am not talking about the poor and indebted that made up Georgia's foundation as a debtor colony (though I'm sure Mike Tyson would fit right in). I mean an actual haven for convicts. This means that everyone living here is either themself, or a direct descendent of dangerous felons. John Hicks, Crocodile Dundee, and Heath Ledger are just a few examples of the barbarians inhabiting this harsh land. Anyway, while it is slightly more civilized than when the britons sent over a boat full of arrested prostitutes to populate the island (the "floating brothel"), there are still obviously criminals, and, therefore, facilities to house them. Quick note here: One woman I work with has a [female] friend who happens to be a prison guard. Suspend for a minute your intuition that the following is replete with sexism on my part. I was slightly surprised, because such dangerous inmates as I can only imagine are found here probably don't make the best water-cooler companions for a female employee, traditional gender roles blatantly incorporated. When I asked what she did, specifically, the reply was, "she works in the kitchen." OK, now this is sounding like a bad joke, but I swear I couldn't make this up, "...but she used to govern the laundry room." Seriously, I did my best not to laugh, but my best wasn't good enough. Nice to see the equal opportunity prison assignments here; political correctness is not australia's strong point (and that's not necessarily a bad thing... I wonder if there are any nappy headed inmates).
Anyway, from my discussions about the prison system here, I learned a shocking truth: sexual predators, pedophiles, and rapists, are all housed in a separate detention center, segregated from other societal dregs like murderers and violent robbers (apparently this is the same in England). And the reason? You guessed it, to protect these "weaker" people from being brutalized by more "respectable" detestables; you know, like if you're a child molester serving jail time, someone who loves his daughter but murdered a family might take offense to your actions and serve to punish them further. You know what? Fine by me. Refined correctional facilities only coddle sex offenders - why shouldn't they be beaten and raped (obviously behind the turned heads of the - i'm guessing here - male guards) in the same vein as the offense they committed? Let the punishment fit the crime. I think it's clear that jail time and rehab doesn't always work. The only reason I'm writing about this now is due to the CNN article on the guy in South Carolina who raped a 12 year old girl in 1991, served 9 years, and was released to torture and rape two more teenagres recently (in addition, the judge in 2000 denied two committees recommendations that he be placed in a program). Honestly, this makes me angry. It's like granting probation to murderers who should be on death row, only (and I'm certainly not marginalizing murder or death) murder victims don't grow up (duh) with mental and social problems of their own, more likely to pass on the crimes enacted on them.
To grant leniency to sex offenders (and especially pedophiles, fuckers) is a little bit too liberal for me, sorry. I don't care about the argument that they might get killed if placed in the general prison population - so might anyone else, and for that matter, if they prey on the weak while in society, why should they be cordoned off with more of their kind, the week? Way to go, Queen's commonwealth, nice work treating your rapists with what's essentially physical protection (from what could be considered justice). And with stricter gun control laws here, if you're stuck in a cell with a murderer, you know he was man enough to do it the old fashioned way, all glorification aside. Maybe that would make someone (but probably not) think twice about assaulting children. Now where's that woman that cleans my stripes and cooks my food?
In terms of worthwhile punishment, by the way, I thought about this. One girl here thinks they should cut something off so they can't have the same kind of arousal feelings for little kids, or so they can't get erections (obviously dealing with male offenders here). I vehementally disagree. They should actually be fully capable of having those desires, but be locked up (for life) with a huge window (or two-way mirror) just outside a playground: so many kids just out of reach (for their eternity) might be the most tortuous response ("you will never get this, you will never get this"). Oh, and slice their achilles and take their thumbs (the felons, not the kids).