Having worked in the business, I saw thousands of cases of it. Prison makes you old before your time. Every year in prison ages you like three normal years.
As evidence, here’s OJ Simpson when he was sentenced to prison in 2008. And here he is in court a couple of weeks ago.
No sympathy for the man. He deserves what he got and more. But I see some people saying that prison is an easy life.
I was watching the Naked Gun movies a couple of weeks ago, he’s actually pretty good in those and its odd to think of what fate had in store for him just a short time later.
Anyway, on the topic of the thread, I’m against the death penalty but I do think prison sentences are too short over here (the UK) and especially in terms of life sentences.
However I watched a TV documentary a couple of years ago which made me reassess my opinion, it followed several life sentence prisoners from their initial sentences every ten years or so until their eventual release. To a man they were physical and mental wrecks at the end of their sentence, one man in particular when first shown was in his early twenties a typical James Dean type renegade spitting defiance at the system and obviously quite intelligent and eloquent (not enough to stay out of prison though), twenty five years later he was a fat old man shaking with palsy and barely able to string a sentence together, he looked much older than his years and prison had obviously destroyed him as a person.
So now I’m not so sure about the long sentences, I still think UK sentences are too short though in general and US sentences are too long, there is a happy medium somewhere and neither nation has found it.
Prisons are for punishment, aren’t they?
Yes, I know that lots of people who can’t afford a lawyer are unjustly locked up, but for a super-rich and very guilty guy like OJ, or Bernie Madoff, or whoever, I’m not gonna feel any pity.
But I do want to say to the OP: you’re wrong about the pics.
I looked at both of them, and I’m not seeing an aging person. To me, they look pretty similar.
The only real difference between the first pic( taken 6 years ago dressed in a suit), and the 2nd one( taken recently dressed in prison uniform)-- is the expression on his face. Plus the fact that in the 2nd pic O.J.'s hair is a bit greyer— but that happens to a lot of people his age.
A person always looks younger when smiling and well dressed. But while you’re wearing prison uniform and facing a long sentence, most people won’t be smiling.
I don’t think OJ looks bad at all for a man of 65. He’s a bit heavier and a bit grayer; the dude is a senior citizen now.
I was kind of thinking of the same thing. You also have to consider that in prison he can’t use hair dye, which he might have been using before.
It’s not all bad.
http://www.wsmv.com/story/22080698/inmates-party-display-drugs-and-cash-in-facebook-posts-and-video
People are sent to prison as punishment. Not to be punished.
To me he doesn’t look like he has aged that much. Obviously he was using black hair dye before he went to prison and doesn’t have access to that anymore. Otherwise, he just looks tired in the more recent picture. Not a huge difference.
Looks like he’s been getting seconds in the cafeteria.
From what I read O.J. does not like the food so he has been eating a lot of junk food from the commissary. His arthritis is also getting worse so he stopped exercising. So he is putting on weight.
Yeah, a few years of stressfulness will turn a few hairs grey.
Consider the then-and-now pics of this dude.
Assuming you are not locked up with psychopathic killers, what is so stressful about prison? You don’t have to work, you get fed and clothed, and you can use a library. Its a lot better life than most people in the 3rd world have.
Well, as long as you don’t mind being told when to eat, sleep, shit, etc. it should be fine. Also, hope you don’t mind no privacy and limited to no opportunity to do meaningful work.
I could go on but it’s the weekend and I’d rather not think about it.
Yes the Army does suck at times.
Nothing. It’s a free-ride, baby. :dubious:
is this a serious question?
Its possibly better than a 3rd world lifestyle (or at least a 4th world lifestyle). I’m sure a lot of people in North Korea or Ethiopia would rather live in a western prison given a choice.
But you lose your freedom, your family and friends forget about you, society shuns you, your life is idle and boring, trust is rare, you are surrounded by dangerous people, etc.
Humans need supportive social relationships and personal freedom to thrive, neither seems common in prison.
And the tedium. Don’t forget that. While it’s subtle and easily overlooked, I think it’s one of the most dangerous things prisoners face.
There was a comedy movie a few years back called Let’s Go to Prison. It was about (spoiler alert) two guys going to prison - one was a first timer and the other had been locked up before and knew the system.
There was a scene where they had been processed in and assigned their cell. They stepped into a cell that had nothing but two beds, a sink, and a toilet. Breakfast was in about sixteen hours. The regular laid down on one of the beds. The new guy took a couple of paces around the cell and then asked, “What do we do now?” And the experienced guy looked at him for a second and said, “We’re doing it. This is it.”
My SIL has joked on Facebook that she’d like to go to prison so she doesn’t have to cook and do laundry any more (unless she was assigned those jobs, but I didn’t tell her that). This is a person who wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a real prison.
Being incarcerated for a crime you did not commit is IMNSHO something nobody deserves to experience, and ranks up there with the death of a child on that list.
No it was better than that.
Nelson Biederman IV: So now what do we do?
John Lyshitski: Hmm? What do you mean?
Nelson Biederman IV: What do I mean? I mean, what are we… what are we supposed to do?
John Lyshitski: We’re doin’ it, man. This is it. We’re right in the thick of the action. We hang out here, go to lunch, come back, hang out some more, go to dinner… You know how someone might describe a situation that’s unpleasant or confining as being, “like a prison”?
Nelson Biederman IV: Yeah.
John Lyshitski: This is what they were referring to.
