Jail just a job for organised criminals?

A humourous email circulated some time ago, comparing jail with work. We all had a good laugh, but as Jimbo Jones once said, every joke has a colonel of truth. I was never a "jails are too lenient" kind of person but I think that for some offenders, jails are too lenient!

For your average person down on his luck, the choice between robbing a bank and getting a job is an easy one. The prospect of going to jail is not a nice thought. And I would think for any casual criminal, the thought is the same. They would try to avoid it at all costs.

But for a member of an organised gang, perhaps doing 2 years in the nick is not such a bad thing. They get paid, like any job, and the possibility of having to spend an extended period in confinement, in the company of others of their occupation, is just part of the job description.

I am confined to my office for 8 hours a day (9 if you consider the fact that it's not convenient to leave the place for lunch), and I get paid. It will generally apply from the age of 21 until 65. I have to do what the boss tells me. Now, I care about maintaining my crime-free status, but not everyone does.

They say that prisoners have access to play-stations, gyms, and the rest of it because they are not supposed to be punished within jail. That being denied their freedom is their punishment. But most honest workers have their freedom denied too.