Prisons shouldn't give inmates any perks unavailable to poor law abiding citizens. Prisons offer television, education/job training, etc. There are honest poor people that don't have that. As for prisons being an endless cycle due to excons having a difficult time getting hired for decent work - again, there are honest people that are also finding it impossible to find decent work. Should a poor person be able to live a better life by committing a crime? If prisons offer so much that a poor person can't afford, and even further (in some posters' ideal scenarios) gave the excon a better chance at finding a fair paying job, who but the most moral of the poor wouldn't jump at the chance at prison life? Prisons should never make a persons life better. We don't send people to prisons to make their lives better, even in the long run. We send people to college for that. The two shouldn't be confused.
