Assignment 2: Article Review

Now for something that isn't that fun but still interesting...

ALARM OVER PRISON SUICIDES

A summary of the article:
French Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie has put into place a few extra measures to reduce suicides in prison, such as paper pyjamas, non-tearable sheets and non-flamable mattresses among others, to reduce the chance of hangings and burnings.
Florence Aubenas, head of prison rights group Observatoire International des Prisons, told France Info radio that although this was for the prisoners' good, it was against human rights.
The French President, Nicholas Sarkozy also said that the state of the prisons was a 'disgrace'.
196 people have died since last year.

My views:

I feel that the whole thing is avoidable.
If the prisoners had better facilities they would not want to commit suicide. If they had been been allowed some free time to excercise or read or learn, they might not have decided that their life was not worth it and they would have focused on reforming and turning over a new leaf.

So, I feel that the jailors should not attempt to just stuff the prisoners into a jail cell and leave them there to rot, and maybe even cram four or five into one cell and leave them to fight out who should have the beds in the cell. I feel that they should start an educational program so that the prisoners can continue their education without the influence of peer pressure. This also gives the additional benefit of giving them time to repent and face their problems, all of which contribute to the mental well-being of the prisoner. Furthermore, the prisoners may become more well-behaved because they are too engrossed in studying or learning to fight with prisonmates.

Also, the hype about spending money to make non-tearable sheets and things like that are just useless, as the non-tearable sheets may be used for a prison escape out of a window. Althought the matresses are non-flamable, I'm sure the paper pyjamas are. And surely the prisoner can suffocate himself in the non-flamable matress and hang himself with the non-tearable sheet, right? So, my suggestion for this bit is to just spend the money to make a more comfortable environment for the prisoner to stay in, with a maximum of 2 people to a cell and just remove all the things from the ceiling save the lightbulb. If the guy wants to hang himself he has to find somewhere to hang the rope first, so just get rid of it! And also fix the mattress to the bed or floor to reduce suffocations and bar the windows to prevent any escapes from that front. If the prisoner wants to bite his wrist until he ruptures the artery and bleed to death, that's his problem. (I haven't thought of a way around that yet so...)

I am sure these suggestions are much more efficient and perhaps cheaper in the long run. (After all, paper pyjamas will have to be thrown away, which is such a waste. )

Phew! at least 200 words...I hope?