OK this is just sick!!!! US people what are you doing?

[Guru]

Found this on www.tweak3d.com

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Yes, this post is completely off-topic, but still, it's quite sad, and I think you should read this one. The whole thing could later turn out to be a scam or something... but anyway, here's the juice.
CNN ran a story (among other media sources) reporting that middle-school children, while on a field trip of a prison, were forced to be stripped-searched in front of inmates. In some cases, it sounds like the inmates were allowed to help the prison guards strip the children. Read the story for the disturbing details.

While this is very disgusting and upsetting, doesn't it sound fabricated? It's true that this is a widespread story, but it seems too unrealistic. Has our society really come to something so screwed up?

</font>

Read more here: http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/05/29/st...rch/index.html


BTW don't take the topic as an personalinsult!

[Joel]

I won't but be careful about singling the US out about stupid things.

Personally I hope this is not true because if it is I know for sure some heads are going to roll. I feel that it is not real for the simple fact that something like this would be pastered on the front page of every newspaper and the feature story on any news broadcast and I've yet to see either.

Joel

[Pneumatic]

It sounds like one of those "Scared Straight" programs.They take juvenile trouble makers and take then through a jail to show them what it's "really"" like. They get yelled at, cursed at, humiliated and so on. I have never heard of one going as far as a strip search, though. That was over the line if it happened like they say it did.

BTW: notice in the article that the first 4 paragraphs start with the word "Lawyers". That may explain a lot too.

[This message has been edited by Kindness! (edited 31 May 2001).]

[Alec]

Whoa, a thread "against" americans. Gurm, where are you?

[ahartman]

Actually, that story is very true.

It has two parts, the first of which seems to keep getting glossed over.

part 1:

Day x (can't remember when) a group of middle-school girls go to the prision. One is put in a cell with adult male prisioners. Nothing happens directly to the girl, but she's forced to watch "a lewd act". No details on what the act was.

Day x+1 a group of middle-school boys go to the prision. Roughly half of them are subjected to strip-searches.

Result: Warden was fired earlier this week. One guard who protested the strip searches will not be punished, but it seems like the rest are in big trouble.

The biggest outrage is that the boys were allowed to visit after the girl visit, given what went on.

Impact to the program is that middle-school children will no longer be taken on the tours. High-school students will continue.

It was a scared-straight kind of thing, btw, but the lewd act & strip-searches weren't supposed to be a part of the whole experience.

[Helevitia]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">BTW don't take the topic as an personalinsult!</font>

Then please dont display personally insulting messages. And yes, my first thought was, why is he singling out americans even before I read what was inside.

As far as the issue is conerned, that is straight up, ****ed up.

Dave

edit: typo

[This message has been edited by Helevitia (edited 31 May 2001).]

[The PIT]

Sounds like a bunch of perves to me.
If it's true I hope the people who planned it rot in jail forever.

[Gurm]

Perhaps a little background is in order.

The "scared straight" type of programs have been around for a few years.

The idea is you take juvenile delinquents (WITH the permission and often assistance of their parents) and put them through a sampling of the punishment that awaits them if they don't stop being delinquents.

This can involve being locked up with scary people, put through a boot-camp style military experience, etc.

It is fairly effective, albeit draconian. All is done, in theory, with the permission of the parents.

Apparently someone failed to tell these parents what the program entailed.

The article makes it sound like the kids volunteered for fun. They were almost certainly forced to go. However, I have heard of cases where they took regular volunteers who had NO idea what they were getting into. Those cases usually result in the firing of the person who is running the program.

- Gurm

------------------
Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Guru]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Alec:
Whoa, a thread "against" americans. Gurm, where are you? </font>

No this is not a thread against americans!

[ahartman]

Gurm,

I'm not sure of your point. Everyone knows what a scared-straight program is.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> Perhaps a little background is in order. </font>

Perhaps some common sense is in order to realize & accept that what happened is so far out of bounds from any valid scared-straight program...

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> Apparently someone failed to tell these parents what the program entailed. </font>

It almost sounds like you're defending what happened there. No parent would sign up his or her 11-14 year old kid to be strip-searched or forced to watch an inmate masturbate (i'm guessing at the lewd act).

Fear of getting raped in prison or treated badly/beaten by prison officials or other inmates should NOT be an acceptable deterrent.

I believe EVERY kid should be forced to visit a morgue and a prison BEFORE they're trouble.

However, what happened in this specific case has nothing to do with the kids volunteering or being forced to go.

The prison officials made a very very bad decision and I doubt that good intentions were at work.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/Da...ail010530.html

edit: spelling

[This message has been edited by ahartman (edited 31 May 2001).]

[az]

Ahartman: Not all people know what those programs are about (me, for example), because not every country runs them

And I don't think Gurm is defending what happened there, since he is the one who started this thread. I think he just wanted to say he finds nothing wrong with "scared straight" programs per se.

AZ

[Pneumatic]

The scared straight programs are a good idea, so long as they are controlled. I have seen several stories on the news shows about them and they seem to have an effect on the kids that are sent there. They are basically brought into a prison and shown that it isn't a cake walk. They give the prisoners certain chances to "scare" the kids while thery are there, in a lecture type format. I saw one where the inmate was talking to the group, giving a "don't end up like me" speech. There was a young man in the back that was smiling and joking. The inmate flew into a rage and got all in the boys face telling him that if he showed up in this prison he would be several guys "bi*ch"'. He (the inmate) then made him hold onto his belt loop the rest of the time and called him his "bi*ch". The boy wasn't smiling much after that.

One of the shows told that the crime rate among those that attend the Scared Straight programs after their first offense dropped dramatically (I forget the percentage). However, the kids that are sent there souldn't be subjected to anything sexual (even though if they go to prison it would be a reality for some). Knock off the strip search and the masterbation and it's a good program.

[ahartman]

Sorry az - I haven't been posting enough lately to remember the large number of non-Americans... my apologies.

But Guru started the thread, not Gurm. My points still stand.

[az]

Oops - my fault.. sorry Gurm and Guru

No problemo (hehe commander keen always said that ), ahartman

AZ

[KvHagedorn]

Nothing that happens in DC would surprise me, let's just leave it at that.

I've seen stories where people with serious criminal records were hired as police officers there, and abused people arrested for minor offenses. The mayor was caught on tape snorting cocaine with a hooker. The culture that does not condemn this type of behavior is to blame.