They actually did a big report on this on like dateline or something...maybe Chris Hanson was involved, I'm not sure. And basically it's this huge social and political issue concerning people being forced to be the amusement of others. It's especially concerning because many of these people are in this prison for years now just simply waiting to get a fair trial. They haven't even been sentenced yet, (or acquitted for that matter.) I'm not going to pretend to be a bleeding heart here, but it is concerning. And yet, there's a prisoner in drag, so I laugh, in spite of it all.

You wrote:

"You have no job, no home, no identity and no freedom."

That's only partially true, and I will be a bleeding heart liberal here.

Nearly every inmate at the women's prison where I volunteer has a job – the prison wouldn't run without the inmates providing housekeeping, landscaping, janitorial, kitchen, horticultural, secretarial and mechanical services, usually at the princely sum of 12 cents an hour.

Their homes are a bunk bed and a locker, two to a cubicle. No ceilings, no privacy, no dignity and lots of noise.

They have identities, too: the number they are assigned when they surrender to the system.

But you're right about about not having any freedom.

Many of them have been peripherally involved in criminal activity, many more have been completely unaware that crimes have been committed by their employees, husbands, children or boyfriends. Most of them have committed the crime of making a bad decision.

Who among us hasn't done that?

I'm not going to get into any social commentary here but only say I enjoyed that. To have that many people in a prison work together to create that? Just floors me. Great find.

For Debbi:

I promise I'm not trying to start an arguement, I'm just curious, what is that you are standing up for/against here? Prison in general? Yes everyone makes mistakes, but many of us don't make the kind where we are breaking major laws. It's not that I dont' feel for the women locked up for crimes they were hoodwinked into by their dumbass boyfriends-we, as women, so often turn a blind eye in matters of love-but is the inference here that because they are women and were arguably coaxed into comitting some crime that prison and its system should not be applied to them? If you ask me having a little corner in that complex to call home and a job to keep your mind is a step up from so many other places where you are thrown into some sort of tortuous hole without any sort of fair trial. I'm not saying that our system isn't flawed, we are humans after all. I'm just wondering, what is it that you are arguing against/for?

I was specifically responding to the sentence: "You have no job, no home, no identity and no freedom." Especially the "no job" part.

Prisons are run on the labor of inmates, who earn very little. Some of the women with no skills or who have health problems at Alderson earn $5 a month.

The prison provides a cot and meals, three sets of underclothes, a set of pajamas, a crew-neck t-shirt, a khaki shirt, khaki trousers and heavy black shoes.

The prison commissary sells – at a more-than-fair profit – sweatshirts, t-shirts, sweatpants, athletic socks and shoes, umbrellas, outerwear, hats, scarves, toiletries, snacks and other items most people use during the course of their lives.

A simple terry robe, for instance, costs $50. Sneakers that I can buy at Sam's Club or Wal-Mart for $25 cost twice that much in the prison store. Things like shampoo and deodorant and aspirin and tampons are all things inmates must purchase using their 12-cents-an-hour wages. Along with writing materials, stamps and phone calls.

Most people think prisons provide the basics. They do and they don't.

I'm coming at this from the perspective of one who volunteers in a women's prison camp – the least secure of all federal facilities – so I know my views are slanted. In my opinion, if one's sentence is to be served in a camp, that sentence doesn't need to be more than a year. There are men and women serving eight, 10, 12 and even 20 years in minimum-security facilities all over the country. I don't see what purpose that serves. House arrest following less prison time would allow the felon to continue to provide for his/her family, contribute to society and still be punished.

I hope that answers your question. You can e-mail me at shrinking knitter AT citynet DOT net if you want to continue the conversation.