My friends and I were chatting about the crime situation in our country when the discussion turned to the pubishment of prisoners. Somebody commented that one of the reasons why crime was not subsiding was that prison time was no longer a deterrent. He complained that prisoners had too many rights; that prisoners were doing better than the average law-abiding citizen in that they had three meals per day and had a roof over their heads, rent free. Somebody else added that prisoners watched soapies when they should be doing hard labour! He went on to argue that it was ridiculous that prisoners were actually allowed to vote - shouldn't this right be taken away, he asked.

I argued that prison wasn't as nice as they thought, judging by the horrid stories that came out of Judge Fagan's investigations into prison conditions. We heard how young prisoners in particular were regularly raped in prison, and how some prisoners contracted HIV in prison because of these rapes. I don't know much about prison life, but the impression I get is that many prisoners are not rehabilitated when they come out. Surely this is a problem, considering that these people get sent back to their communities?

My friend retorted that "if you can't take the punishment, you shouldn't do the crime". Isn't this a contradiction in term, considering that they were arguing that prison is some kind of hotel?

Do you have a viewpoint?