Suddenly said:
No amount of miniscule TVs or other token items are going to make up having your freedom and privacy almost completely taken away, and being locked in a place where violent men are experiencing the same crisis and looking for a way to try to establish dignity and control.
Ah, well, that's the ticket, innit? Being victimized by the most violent offenders is considered part of the punishment, and it is permitted by those people we "should" let run the prisons. Of course, it isn't the most violent offenders who get hurt by this, but then again, I guess that's in line with current Right Thinking™ too?
As far as television itself goes, the prison system does seem to try to reward people with privileges for good behavior.
It's not too surprising, either. When I went to public school in New York, I was systematically abused by bullies. It usually went like this. Some bully would act out against me for a several weeks. (None of the teachers, of course, ever did anything.) Eventually, I would get tired of this and lose my temper. This would usually end with my victimizer on the ground, with me sitting on top of him, preventing him from moving, until someone came to take him away.
Usually, this worked out pretty well. But occasionally, it didn't, because the "counsellor" was in cahoots with the bully. I remember one particularly egregious bully who threw me to a wall after a couple of months of abuse. I lost my temper. A few minutes later, he was on the ground with me sitting on him.
Then, later, I got called in. While I was being interrogated, my victimizer was doing office chores for the interrogator. Some nice buddy buddy rehabilitation scheme. So, I got another appointment with my father present. My father had the same build that I do now. Big. The interrogator changed his tune pretty quickly.
It turned out OK, because my victimizer stayed away from me. Also, I had given him a rather impressive black eye. However, nowadays, with this "zero tolerance" crap, I'm absolutely certain that I would have been expelled, and my vicimizer would have gotten the Platinum BJ™
That taught me great lessons.
That's the kind of guy who grows up to administer prisons. Cops & robbers; it's all the same. The cops are always going to arrest the innocent party if they have a choice. In the prisons, the biggest bad-ass is usually the warden, but his lieutenant bad-ass is usually an inmate. Lawyers and judges and cops practically give each other oral sex before any engagement in which they're supposed to play their roles in a system of "justice." (At least lawyers, though, are legal to bribe. If you have enough money.)
