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Comment by alex_hitchins | Hacker News Reader

You can bring some items, but you couldn't bring a telly etc. There was talk a while back about banning books being sent to prisioners, not sure what logic was used for that one.

I haven't been to prison in the UK or the US however what I've seen of both, the US system seems straight up about making money over anything else. I'd hope the UK system isn't this way although I fear it likely is going that way.

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> I'd hope the UK system isn't this way although I fear it likely is going that way

I fear the same, for example:

"On 16 December 2016, some 600 prisoners took part in a riot at HM Prison Birmingham, a prison in Birmingham, England, operated by G4S.[71] The disturbance was described as the worst in Britain since the 1990 Strangeways riot." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4S#Activities

This manual indicates the UK prison system is much more like the US system than I expected. e.g. shared prison cells.

thats more an artefact of the fact that most of our prisons were built in the 1800s.

2 in a cell is common.

Until the 90s they never had indoor plumbing either, only buckets in the cells. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slopping_out

The following article is worth a read too on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Strangeways_Prison_riot

I believe it was the squalid conditions that sparked the unrest.

There are a number of documentaries where the instigators cite conditions and staff abuses as the reason for the Strangeways Riot.

The two most serious ringleaders are both now free, or were in the most recent doc, and are doing fairl well. One is fond of handing out papers with motivational or philosophical thoughts on them and the other now has his own gym.

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