Note to self: When you get locked up for something unique, be lucky enough that you committed the crime in Clayton County, Ga.
Clayton prison requests satellite TV for inmates
By MEGAN MATTEUCCI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/13/07
The latest management tool to settle prison squabbles could be "Monday Night Football."
The Clayton County Correctional Institution asked the County Commission on Tuesday to order DIRECTV for the Lovejoy prison.
Warden Frank Taylor Smith said inmates have been grumbling since "Monday Night Football" moved from ABC to ESPN.
"The reason is 'Monday Night Football' is now on cable," he said. "Although it might seem funny, when you have 90 percent of inmates watching something, it is a management tool for the institution."
The direct-broadcast satellite service — less than $100 a month — will be paid for from money collected at the prison's commissary and pay phones. Last year, the prison collected $41,000 from the inmate commissary and telephones but spent only a quarter of that money on inmate welfare, Smith said.
The 226 inmates housed in the facility's five dormitories now have the option of watching two channels, but half the time the reception is poor.
"It's a very routine thing. Every state prison has cable or DIRECTV," Smith said. "We have an antenna now."
Smith told the commission that all state prisons and 90 percent of county institutions have either cable or satellite TV.
However, Georgia Department of Corrections officials say that is not correct.
"No prisoners have DIRECTV. Television is a privilege," said Tracy Smith, a state corrections spokeswoman. "Our televisions have antennas."
The state pays a stipend to Clayton County to house inmates in the medium security prison, which serves as a work camp to provide labor for the county's public works, water authority, landfill and other departments. County officials say they save $1.4 million annually by using inmate labor.
The Clayton County Commission will vote on the DIRECTV proposal next week.
... what part of "you're in jail because you committed a crime and you don't deserve all of the things people who aren't in jail have" did I miss?
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5 comments:
I know that you know how angry this makes me.
I don't disagree, and yet, you have to give people distractions so they don't shank each other (or the guards) just to pass the time. These people may be criminals, but their minds still roam wildly. Those minds need to be contained as well ... and I see the wisdom in the rather simple creativity of this approach.
Would you prefer they be raping each other in the shower room, or shooting heroin to pass the time? As long as I am not footing the bill, let the watch whatever they want.
right. if they could have afforded cable at home to keep themselves occupied, they wouldn't have had to go out pillaging and robbing to get the money to afford the cable.
and the meth.
OK, OK ... maybe I'm just jealous that I don't have DirecTV. ;)
Poor Sweet Ann and her 20 channels.
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