An amazing story about a prison in Venezuela in yesterday's NY Times (featuring the photo above):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/world/americas/04venez.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me
A few of the highlights: It is coed, and the sexes mingle freely. Visitors go there to get drugs. Whiskey is freely available. Visitors go there to party and bet on cockfights. There are huge numbers of weapons owned by the prisoners, including AK-47s, AR-15s, Uzis, and M-16s. And there are four swimming pools there.
How exactly would they film a Scared Straight down there?
It certainly renders all those expressions like "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time" a little meaningless.
For you and me, I suppose this prison would still be a scary place. But for the big time drug dealers who run the joint, it's basically a resort.
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11 comments:
The Brits used to have one of those, it was called Australia.
G
G --
Hmm...I thought it was called Ireland.
(To any other readers of Irish descent: this comment was only directed at G, not you.)
Irish convicts were also transported to Australia. Originally, the convicts were transported to North America, but that had to stop in the late 1700s because of some colonial difficulties.
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/transportation/transp11.html
G
G -
No, I meant, wasn't Ireland originally settled by English convicts as a sort of prison colony?
And didn't the worst of the worst then call themselves Quakers, because everybody would quake in their presence?
The Brits have a long history going back to Cromwell and before of oppressing the Irish. And there was a lot of Protestant settlement in Ireland, particularly of Scots settling in the North. But I didn't know that the Brits sent convict settlers to Ireland. Where did you read that?
On origin of the name "Quakers" according to wiki:
The origin of the name "Quaker" is disputed. In 1650, a prominent Friend, George Fox, was brought before Justice Bennet of Derby on a charge of blasphemy. According to Fox's Journal, Bennet "called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God",[2] a scriptural reference (e.g., Book of Isaiah 66:2, Ezra 9:4). Therefore, what began apparently as a way to make fun of Fox's admonition by those outside the Society of Friends became a nickname that today many Friends use for themselves.
G
Here is an interesting source on the transportation of convicts to the American colonies in the 1700s:
http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/blackheath/thebc1.htm
G
G --
I made all that stuff about Ireland up, was just teasing you.
And as far as the Quaker stuff, yes, I know, I was brought up as a little Quaker myself (though it never took).
Thank you for the reference to American convicts, that was interesting.
John, I knew that, I was just playing dumb. The article you highlighted is quite something. Maybe the prison will inspire a new movie "Escape de San Antonio" in which the American President's plane crashes on the island (after a visit to buddy with Hugo) and when he is captured by the "Rey de San Antonio", played by Shaq in his first major screen role after his retirement from the court, Snake Plissken is called out of retirement to rescue him. (I sort of imagine Snake like the Lee Marvin Kid Shelleen character in Cat Ballou).
It was notable how many of the detainees at the prison mentioned were foreigners. I guess the drug trade is a booming source of employment for ambitious ex-pats.
G
G --
As far as playing dumb, I must compliment you, you do it well.
That sounds like a very entertaining movie, except I'm not sure there would be enough dramatic tension -- would anybody really want to be rescued from the prison/island?
And yes, the drug trade does sound like an opportunity for foreigners there. Certainly after reading that article, the downside doesn't seem all that great.
So well that you might say it comes naturally...?
G
G --
Not what I'm saying at all.
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