Are Prisoners Entitled To Video Games?

I recall hearing a statistic a while ago that more than 1 in 3 households has a PlayStation or PlayStation 2 in their house, but what about prisons? There's a group of politicians and others who say that video games should be offered in penetentiaries, if only as a reward for an inmate's good behavior.

The rationale is that, with prison suicide and murder rates seemingly always on the incline, there should be something that can help with rehabilitation for non-life-sentence prisoners and overall to keep down the level of inmate violence.A privately-run prison in Florida recently installed PS2 consoles and gave prisoners a selection of 7 games, predominantly sports titles. The money was not used from taxpayer dollars, but if this idea gains more support, your tax dollars could potentially be going to purchase the latest video game consoles for convicted murderers.

It's not surprising that this policy is met with strong opposition, especially from Republicans, since there are law-abiding citizens who can't afford things like a PS2.

Personally, I see this new trend having the most potential in white-collar prisons (like the one Martha Stewart went to), if they're not already in wide circulation there. But I can't imagine anyone ever putting into place a policy that would charge taxpayers for convicts' video games.

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Report Published by: Mark Raby

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