A link o' links!

[conuly]

Just about every article linked to is worth reading.

The one that's getting the comments, though, is the one about how prisoners eat better than schoolkids.

In fact, there's one such comment on the post I'm linking you to:

I am a former teacher and I am in agreement about how bad the schools are feeding our students. I have personally seen what nutrition can do for a child's reading levels. Although, I love reading your blog I am bothered that you would even mention in the most casual way that prisoners deserved good food. Is that going to be your next fight? Some of these prisoners may have taken the right away from a child to have the choice of eating a good meal but I guess that doesn't matter as long as our government provides them with good nutritious meals. I understand your original intent was to show that our kids certainly deserve better than prisoners but you should rethink your written support for the prisoners’ nutritional well being.

I replied to this comment, of course, with a succinct "What the hell is wrong with you?" (And you'll be pleased to note that I tactfully did NOT ask how this poster got to be a teacher while making glaring comma errors. Punctuation is important!) What part of being arrested suddenly means you're not allowed to eat? I'm not saying we should be feeding prisoners gourmet four-course meals... but we're not. We're just providing them with meals of some limited nutritional value. This is the bare minimum. And yes, children should be provided meals at least as good. Everybody should!

Oh... ugh. Some people are just so... so... UGH.

On the article itself, the comments are a little better. One points out that the meals in prisons are often cooked by prisoners, which allows them to do better on a budget as they don't get paid much. Another points out that, in fact, inadequate food in prisons is epidemic as people keep thinking it's even cheaper to cut funds from prisoners than from schoolkids. Schoolkids don't vote, but nobody likes criminals (and often they don't get to vote either).

But even there, there's a "I pay taxes for my child to eat, not for PEDAPHILES!!!" comment (spelling all theirs). Bet her song would change if her kid got arrested.

Comments

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Goodness, where to start?

First, children eat one, or in rare cases two meals at school, five days a week. Prisoners do not get to go home for dinner to eat, nor do they get weekends and holidays off.

Next, people are not paying taxes to feed their children. The job of a school is to educate, and if they aren't feeding your kid well, send them to school with a bag lunch. I grow very weary of parents not wanting to feed their own kid, then getting all indignant when that paid entity doesn't care as much as a parent.

And of course, people end up in prison for many varied reasons, most of which should not negate someones basic need for nutrition. I am often amazed at the excuses human beings use to justify marginalizing each other.

[conuly]

I grow very weary of parents not wanting to feed their own kid, then getting all indignant when that paid entity doesn't care as much as a parent.

Well, no. The big push for reform of school lunches is often presented as being for the benefit of children on free or reduced-cost lunch. These children have parents who cannot afford to feed them well during the week, and we do pay taxes to support this program for their benefit. They deserve better nutrition than they're getting. (For that matter, even the kids who pay for lunch deserve better nutrition than they're getting.)

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I guess that's fair. I was thinking more in terms of those craptastic lunches kids buy at school. School lunches forever ruined pizza for me--not that pizza is healthy or anything...

It's sad that eating healthy food is so expensive.

[conuly]

Pizza can be perfectly healthy!

It's a bread, a protein (mozzarella), a healthy fat (olive oil), and, ideally, some vegetables (spinach, basil, broccoli, olives, and definitely tomatoes).

[redbird]

Considering the number of people who seem, quite seriously, to approve of the casual rape of men imprisoned for things like theft and drug possession, I am disgusted but not surprised.

[conuly]

There's a bit of schadenfreude in the rape of men imprisoned for rape. But drug possession? Sheesh.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

Kind of, sort of on a similar subject, recently the city I live in purchased a hotel that gone out of business. The purchase of said hotel was to house homeless people.

Around the same time this happened, a group of people (probably, but not proven to be, teenagers) vandalized a public performance space in a local park, throwing the benches around and piling them on top of each other but not actually doing serious damage to the benches -- just made a huge mess.

One of the people interviewed on the news said, "Why doesn't the city pay for proper policing in the park instead of buying hotels to house the dregs of society?"

Not quite the same situation, but the same attitude.

[conuly]

The dregs of society need more help than bored teens do.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the week's menu of gourmet meals for San Quentin death row inmates Richard Brautigan once found and published in The Tokyo-Montana Express. I mean ....

ETA gah -- edited too much

[beezelbubbles.livejournal.com]

Ugh I hate the "my tax money!" argument. Because we pay taxes to cover lots of things. So fine. You want your tax money to go to school lunches? Close your eyes and imagine that's where it goes. I'll be over here pretending my tax dollars are doing anything other than paying for the war or bloated salaries for politicians, even if that other thing is paying for welfare programs,*gasp* feeding prisoners, or any of the many many things I'm sure I would disagree with that person on. This country spends a lot of money and most people don't realize what a tiny fraction of that they are paying.

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Sounds like she'd get on with a lot of our viewers, who have similar sorts of views regarding convicts. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to transcribe messages saying that when you commit any crime "you lose all human rights". Oh how I wish I could ask them if they intend that to include the right to freedom of religion, freedom of thought, the right to marriage (and then only by consent) etc. Sadly I don't feel the need to ask them if they include the right to life, the right not to suffer torture etc. I fear I already know the answer.

[conuly]

Any crime? ANY crime? Like... truancy? Shoplifting? Jaywalking, underage smoking, running a red light? Is there a time limit on these things by which your human rights can be reinstated, or are you just screwed?

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Welcome to our viewers.

But to be fair, I meant "any crime which gets you a prison sentence". They're not big on rehabilitating ex-cons either.

On the other hand, like most people they believe that clamping cars which park illegally should be totally outlawed.

(Also considering how often I hear "well if it's against EU laws then we should just leave the EU" when it doesn't suit the viewers, I was highly amused a week or two ago when the messages were all "it's EU law, so they should enforce it here too". Voting rights for prisoners? Leave the EU! DNA being kept even if you're found innocent? Do what the EU says!)

It hurts my head, it really does.

[erisiansaint]

It's insane. Bad food in prisons contributes to the general discontent, which is already going to be present when you lock a lot of people in a relatively small space and take away most of their freedom. General discontent leads to prison fights, riots and more crimes being committed in prison, which lead to longer sentences, which leads to the likelihood of a total lack of rehabilitation, which means when they come out, they commit more crimes.

Vicious circle, really. (I'm more on the wanting rehabilitation side of things in prisons. It makes more sense.)

[conuly]

Yes, but if you feed them actual food you're not punishing them!!!