I’ve wondered about this before, but this thread was directly inspired by this post:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20373193&postcount=9
It seems to be widely known that prisoners are not allowed to get tattoos while in prison. Why do officials care? It would seem be less dangerous than smoking (which if the prison movies I’ve seen are correct) is allowed.
I imagine because it’s strongly linked to prison gangs, and they don’t like those.
Because prison tattoos are a great way to spread hepatitis and other diseases.
Its also a way of changing identification marks, tattoos are often used a quick means of recognising an individual, and also any exposed tattoos might well be checked out to see if they came up in any unsolved crime - wouldn’t want to lose potential evidence.
but mainly its gang culture.
It’s a health hazard.
It’s often related to gang activity. Although I’ll admit gang activity can occur with or without tattoos.
Prohibiting tattoos is an effort at rehabilitation. Having a bunch of prison tattoos is not going to help you rejoin mainstream society when you leave prison.
Some prisoners are coerced into getting tattoos to mark them as “property”. Banning tattoos in general is a way of trying to stop coercive tattooing.
On a separate issue, smoking is not allowed inside a building in any New York prison. People can only smoke when they’re outdoors.
13% of my prison patients have Hepatitis C. That’s over 3000 inmates. And the rates of infection are going up. Many got it from prison tattoos, though far more got it from sharing needles for drugs.
Cost for a course of treatment for Hep C is currently running us about $44K just for the drugs.
So we are very anti tattooing being done in our prisons. Especially since it’s done with used diabetes syringes that often get employed on a few dozen folks, with dyes/colorings made from a variety of rather unwholesome substances.
Wisconsin prisons are all tobacco-free, for inmates and for staff. Staff caught with tobacco can be disciplined, including being fired for repeat offenses. Tobacco is contraband in our system.
And since we went tobacco free, we saw a tremendous drop in the rate of severe asthma attacks requiring trips out to the local ER.
Our prisons have been going baccy free, the number of fires overall has dropped by over 80%
If the health thing was the only concern, wouldn’t the more effective solution be to make available, under supervision of course, proper, safe tattoo equipment and dyes?
Establishing licensed and routinely inspected and monitored tattoo parlors inside of prison institutions is low on the list of priorities for most Departments of Correction, especially since any financial/public health benefit from such an action is quite far from proven. Most US prisons struggle to find adequate room to house all inmates safely, not to mention providing them with medically necessary treatments and medications.
To add yet another reason, any equipment that could be used for tattooing could also be used as an improvised weapon, and prisons are understandably reluctant to allow prisoners to have those, too.
As I pointed out, health is not the only concern.
I’ve not spent time inside, but my friends on both sides agree that prisons are badly run, and no-one cares. For the prisoners, it’s like going to a shop where no one cares if you are pleased or if you buy anything, and for the staff, – it’s like working in that shop --.
Out of all the things that could be done, providing supervised tatoo facilities never got mentioned by any of them.
I would dispute that.
Are you aware that he’s in Australia and presumably is talking about prisons there?
Looked at from this perspective I can see the logic.
I’m not convinced (or that knowledgeable, actually) about the gang angle. There are gangs in prison and officials know it. In fact I’ve seen several documentaries where part of the entrance procedure was to choose your gang. So if they are in some small way conceding to gang activity it doesn’t seem like tattoos would be a concern (from that perspective at least).
Which part? Badly run, or no-one cares?
There’s nothing in his post to indicate that.
Both.
The username hints at it.