False Economies
Not a story about me, but something that makes me really cross whenever I think about it.

There's a demonstrable link between quality of diet and emotions. From a personal experience (I was away from home and so had to live on takeaways for 3-4 days), I found that even a short-term diet of eating processed crap made me constantly naggingly hungry (I wasn't getting essential trace nutrients), but also I was short-tempered and tired all the time and it struck me that this must be how most people feel all the time; irritable, short-tempered, prone to sparking off at small inconveniences. It certainly goes some way to explaining Stevenage town centre on a Friday night.

About 5 years ago, a study was carried out into the diet of people in Prison. Normally, a lot of prison food is cheap crap and junk food- after all, they're prisoners and they don't deserve better, right? Well, for some months, instead of the usual slop one prison fed their prisoners well - fresh food, freshly prepared, with a lot of fruit and veg. Incidence of violence in that prison fell by almost 80% over the period, and short-term recidivism after release fell also.

Then a cost benefit analysis study was carried out into the additional cost of the food against how many more prison guards would be needed to achieve that sort of fall in in-prison violence, and it was found to be cheaper to hire more guards than feed people well.
As a result, the prison went back to feeding their inmates slop and hired a few more rough lads with sticks to keep a lid on the place.

Apply the lesson learned here across not just every prison, but every school and hospital that budgets 50p per person per meal and consider the rise in violent crime and emotional problems - and the end cost when policing and medicine for them are considered.

False economies? Talk about it, Mr. Scrooge.
(davywavy, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:28, 7 replies)

I was infuriated by this story.
It is not proven beyond doubt, but there is evidence to suggest that improved diet would result in improved social function for everyone - that is to say, in this context, better behaved prisoners. At the very least, there's enough evidence to merit further research.

It's also the case that proper education in prison'd mean that prisoners'd have a better chance to avoid going back in future.

But the ideas'll never be put into practice, because of the Daily Heil readers who'll object to prisoners being treated with dignity and with one eye on the long-term returns.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:35, closed)

Other stuff
This article is probably the best argument for penal reform I've ever seen in my life: women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article3848081.ece

And this is me talking, and I can see the argument for a return of the stocks :)
(davywavy, Fri 24 Oct 2008, 12:42, closed)

Interesting...
I like where this is going. Do you have any idea where this was done, or who conducted the study?
(aeon chicken Like the Millenium Falcon, only slower and noisier, Sat 25 Oct 2008, 23:35, closed)

I'm afraid I can't remember
I got the story from my brother, who is big on his economics and tends to know about things like this.
(davywavy, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 10:15, closed)

Ding!
I got some of the figures wrong, but here ya go: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2764165.stm
(davywavy, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 14:07, closed)

Environment vs Nature
I seem to recall a simular study done on a Council estate somewhere, where they found that planting hedges and cutting the verges had a considerable effect on vandalism. Treat people like scum, and they won't dissapoint you it seems
(micmac is happy as a pig in shite, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 3:48, closed)

Good economies
Hang on, if it were cheaper to feed the inmates decent food because then you needed less guards and big sticks, then it would be a false economy to save money by not spending the extra on fresh fruit and veg. But as you say, the cost benefit analysis shows there isn't any point in doing so, because it is cheaper to hit them with sticks.
(mrweasel, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 10:31, closed)