November 15th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
It was reported in the news today that the Lisbon, Ohio County Prison is holding an Ohio State-Michigan football game pizza party for all its prisoners this Saturday. Lisbon prison is one of the larger prisons in Ohio that houses criminals of all levels from murderers, rapists to small petty theft offenders.
A copy of a notice was obtained from the jail warden to the inmates saying each inmate will get three slices of pizza in addition to their regular meals on game day, Nov. 18, as a way to show support for the Buckeyes. The notice said in return for their treat, inmates must keep the noise down during the big game and keep their cells tidy. It also said they must stop “horseplay and childish games” and “help us to help you to have an easy time while you’re here.”
Locals and the sheriff are outraged i.e. they are in agreement that taxpayers’ money should be spent in more appropriate ways and prisoners are put in jail to be punished not comforted — luxuries like that are only deserving when they have served their time and have earned public respect or are out of jail.
I completely agree, to have a football party is giving them too much and to spend taxpayers’ money on something lavish like that is not right.
11 Responses to “A prison pizza party”
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Mr. Fabulous said: @ 7:57 pm
November 15th, 2006
I don’t care who wins the game as long as one blows out the other.
Go Gators!
kat campbell said: @ 9:06 pm
November 15th, 2006
As an Ohio resident I’m shocked and perfectly outraged about a pizza party for prisoners. If I didn’t say the Buckeyes would win I’m sure my house would explode.
Johnny Wadd said: @ 12:54 am
November 16th, 2006
How ridiculous, prison is supposed to be punishment time, not party time.
Rebekah said: @ 1:42 am
November 16th, 2006
great blog!
kristarella said: @ 2:28 am
November 16th, 2006
My mum visited a prison recently and she said it was really awful in there. It seems to me that things like that might help the rehabilitation of prisoners because they may be doing much harder time than we realise.
vlu said: @ 1:16 pm
November 16th, 2006
The vast majority of Lisbon Prison residents are drug offenders. How many of you have never smoked pot, had friends who did, been near it, etc?
Some of these men get out of prison one day. In fact, most of them do. Generally speaking, the only men who won’t are rapists and murderers. But the rest will leave the joint one day. Do you want their prison time to have been spent filling up such vast expanses of time with drug dealing, violence and lude sex acts? or maybe some pizza and a football game?
Jeff said: @ 4:01 pm
November 16th, 2006
I think legally they had to have the pizza party. To not have one in a prison in the state of Ohio or Michigan could be deemed cruel and unusual punishment.
On a more serious note, I kind of agree with kristarella. Anything (within reason) that can be done to boost morale in a prison will benefit more people than just the prisoners.
The Foo said: @ 4:53 pm
November 16th, 2006
Pretty good comments! Regarding the pizza party, let me state that I don’t mind the fact that they are allowed to watch the game, but I do mind the fact that the prison is spending money for pizzas/food on top of that.
It was reported that East of Chicago pizza is going to make the pizzas which first of all isn’t the cheapest pizza delivery place around… an average large pizza @ East of Chicago cost about $11.99 w/ tax and a large pizza approximately has about 6 slices. If I do the math: with about 300 inmates or so that amounts to about approx. $1800 not including tax. That money could be put towards the daily operating costs of the jail instead of blowing it on a 3 hour pizza party - i could probably go as far as saying that kind of money could provide 2-3 normal meals to the all the inmates. I am not even counting the cost of drinks and feeding the staff too, so the final cost would be way more than the calculated $1800 figure.
Lavish is the fact that they didn’t even consider getting frozen pizzas (for almost half the cost) instead choosing to spend on pizza delivery.
And mind you, the people paying for this 3 hour pizza party are the local taxpayers.
I am all for boosting the morale of the prisoners — but not in this lavish way.
I have no doubt that prison is bad and rough — but I am sorry, that is the whole point of a prison. It is not meant to be a comfort zone where people enjoy stuff - it is meant for some sort of punishment. Again, I would go as far as letting them watch the game but that is it — having a party per say is a privilege that is undeserving.
The Foo said: @ 5:07 pm
November 16th, 2006
Oh and I forgot to say this as well, if you make jail nice and cushy… people won’t mind going there hence why would they even try not to commit a crime… after all “it’s not too bad on the inside, right?” If you make jail or a prison rough and tough — people will try their best to stay out of it. One comment from an article I read about this states it perfectly… “Make your jail more like a jail and the bad guys won’t want to go there”
vlu said: @ 5:20 pm
November 16th, 2006
“Make your jail more like a jail and the bad guys won’t want to go there”
while this should be true, logically speaking, it isn’t.
the united states of america has the worst, most terrifying prisons in the free world, AND the highest crime rates. canadian prisons do more to make sure the rights and comforts of the prisoners are respected, and there is a tremendously lower per capita crime rate here. although, by no means is the canadian prison system perfect…
prison is no deterrent. what we fail to remember is that criminals are not usually functioning with a clear and perfectly rational mind while their committing their crimes, so why should the logic of avoiding prison strike them right then? it doesn’t, hence why 2.2 million people occupy the prisons in the USA.
i don’t think that not sending them to prison is an answer either, obviously we need to keep society safe from these criminals, but if we took a good critical look at the recidivism rates and why so many people re-offend after already knowing what the prison system is like and having to live within it, we might see some kind of trend.
by treating these people as human beings and helping them in some way to come out better than when they went in, not only would crime rates drop, but less innocent people would become victims of crimes as well. the point of the system should not just be to conduct justice after the fact, it should be to prevent more people from becoming victims.
ask any victim of any crime if there had been a way to prevent that crime from occurring, would they have appreciated a serious implementation of that so they would never had to have been victimized and they’ll say yes, whole-heartedly.
JR said: @ 11:50 pm
November 16th, 2006
As an employee for the Michigan Department of Corrections, there used to be inmate banquets such as The National Lifer’s Association where they raised money for a needy charity. Banquets are no longer permitted. Also, if this Ohio prison is throwing a pizza party, the money should come out of the IBF (Inmate Benefit Fund) and only those that have remained ticket free should be able to go.
On another note, the prison I work at has cable television, whereas, I do not.