Shipping Containers Converted Into Jail Cells

Tabnabs

Shipping containers are doing double duty in New Zealand as they become the country's latest answers to overcrowded jails.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reports that used shipping containers are being converted into prison cells.

"They certainly can be made into very nice homes," New Zealand Corrections Minister Judith Collins told ABC. "They can be made obviously into very good prison cells."

Prison advocates say it's akin to locking someone up in a tin can. The 12-meter long containers become three cells, each holding two men. It took 5 months to build a 60-bed prison.

Collins said the containers and double bunking have averted a bed crisis. The country has 8,700 inmates, a figure that ABC reports increases by about 70 each week.

Peter Williams of the Howard League for Penal Reform isn't buying it.

"Shipping containers are made to contain freight - to place in freight boats to take from A to B," he said. "They're not designed for human beings."

Williams said the country needs to reform its prisons. He said New Zealand has one of the highest incarceration rates in the Western world, second only to the United States.

He said there is not much emphasis placed upon reform or "getting at the root causes of crime."

"So crime soars, we have burgeoning prison populations, and now we're having to use these tin cans to put people in," he said to ABC. "It is absolutely disgraceful."

3 News journalist Patrick Gower voluntarily spent a night in the shipping container jail to see what it's like. His stay was at Rimutaka Prison where manager Dean Brosnahan told him "they're very comfortable."

Gower reported that the cell was "a little cramped but not too bad, particularly for a prison." He pointed out that the prisoners would be sharing the cell with another cell mate.

While critics are calling them inhumane, he said the "hardliners will probably be disappointed."

"On a wintry night, a heater makes the cells warm and toasty, and you never feel alone," he wrote.

Panama Guide reported that shipping containers would be used to build temporary prison cells while new prisons are built.

The article added that a similar system was being discussed in Argentina. The 18-square-meters discussed were to accommodate four detainees along with space for two tables, four benches and an area for toilets and connections for sewage and drinking water.

They were also to be used indoors so inmates are protected from bad weather.

source

It's a great idea and should be looked at for Ireland too!

Trashbat

Dyflin wrote: »

It's a great idea and should be looked at for Ireland too!

Why? They take up similar space, they're just cheaper. And Probably seriously less secure. no different to suggesting caravans tbh.

Tea_Bag

sounds fishy

Banned Account

Put them in the containers on a ship, drape them in tea towels and sail them on over to Israel - that'll sort the men from the boys.

Tabnabs

Trashbat wrote: »

Why? They take up similar space, they're just cheaper. And Probably seriously less secure. no different to suggesting caravans tbh.

Any this is a problem why...?

Pot Noodle =

The Hotel behind Joels on the Naas road was converted from Prison cell pods Dutch Co i think

CreepingDeath

Won't hurt to drop a few of those containers filled with criminals over the side of a freighter on a stormy night too.

the_dark_side

they make fine pads though... Im getting one soon to use as a private getaway

http://blog.makezine.com/12con01.jpg

starbelgrade

What was that TV program from years ago where yer man lived in the back of his articulated lorry?

El Siglo

Probably carbon neutral as well, use less energy than that of concrete. I'd be in favour shipping containers, nothing wrong with them at all... unless of course you're a migrant worker in the back of one.

Trashbat

Dyflin wrote: »

Any this is a problem why...?

Cheaper = Not as good.

I'd prefer my criminals to be kept somewhere they can't get out of.

Trashbat

Trashbat wrote: »

Cheaper = Not as good.

I'd prefer my criminals to be kept somewhere they can't get out of.

I would presume there's a wall around them. Much like a prison.

Run_to_da_hills

Dyflin wrote: »

source

It's a great idea and should be looked at for Ireland too!

Great idea, when they are full we can ship them out to New Zealand.

Stinicker

Awaits some moron to spout a load of bleeding heart liberal diarrhoea all over the thread.

SV

Trashbat wrote: »

Cheaper = Not as good.

that's the stupidest thing I've ever read on after hours, congrats!

drdeadlift

they could make for very very affordable housing solution

Dardania

It's quite a good idea - I'd say it saves money as well. If you're fitting out containers one after the other in a factory, you could save a lot of money compared to constructing a once-off concrete prison.

Much construction is done in this manner - it's common for bathrooms for apartments/hotels to be "pods" assembled off-site...

wouldn't like to be in one like the second season of the wire though...

CrazyRabbit

1. Prison cells are not meant to be nice.
2. Any country with such high incarceration needs to take a close look at the causes. It's cheaper in the long run to spend money preventing crimes than to spend money later housing criminals.

socroni

starbelgrade wrote: »

What was that TV program from years ago where yer man lived in the back of his articulated lorry?

was it...

"Guerrilla Homes:
Charlie Luxton takes a converted shipping container round the country to look at different and cheaper places to live."

Eco living in Shipping containers - Dreamspaces - BBC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svS2rpS4plM

jill_valentine

I'm about as liberal bleeding hearty as it gets, I think this might be a great idea. Granted, I'm sure Ireland would find some way to f*ck it up - our shipping containers will mysteriously cost about 20,000 quid a piece more than anywhere else in the world or something, you know the usual - but it makes sense in theory.

I'd have some concerns about weatherproofing them - New Zealand and Argentina have slightly different climate stuff to worry about, obviously - but otherwise the concept is certainly interesting. I don't think incarceration is the be all and end all, but I heard earlier that it costs 70,000 quid to house a prisoner for a year in this country, and that's just absolutely insane, so I'm all for creative solutions

later12

The issue with the housing of prisoners from a penal reform point of view is not the building material used to provide housing for prisoners per se, it's the conditions that the prisoners live in, and how the state engages with the prisoner over the term of his incarceration.

I think you guys are quite jumping the gun in presuming that those who have genuine concerns about how prisoners are handled in the prison service, or those who have serious concerns about overcrowding in prisons, would be flatly against the use of shipping containers. It's true they have been used for (sometimes fashionable) human habitation elsewhere in developed countries, and they can't be written off completely as an option imo.

But statements like 'prison cells are not meant to be nice' are unhelpful and I would suggest a little ignorant of both reality, and of the needs of prisoners if they are to begin the reform process.

later12

jill_valentine wrote: »

I'd have some concerns about weatherproofing them - New Zealand and Argentina have slightly different climate stuff to worry about, obviously - but otherwise the concept is certainly interesting. I don't think incarceration is the be all and end all, but I heard earlier that it costs 70,000 quid to house a prisoner for a year in this country, and that's just absolutely insane, so I'm all for creative solutions

That's right, IPS report came out today.

Interesting reading for anyone interested in the prison population.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0825/prison2010.pdf

CrazyRabbit

later10 wrote: »

The issue with the housing of prisoners from a penal reform point of view is not the building material used to provide housing for prisoners per se, it's the conditions that the prisoners live in, and how the state engages with the prisoner over the term of his incarceration.

I think you guys are quite jumping the gun in presuming that those who have genuine concerns about how prisoners are handled in the prison service, or those who have serious concerns about overcrowding in prisons, would be flatly against the use of shipping containers. It's true they have been used for (sometimes fashionable) human habitation elsewhere in developed countries, and they can't be written off completely as an option imo.

But statements like 'prison cells are not meant to be nice' are unhelpful and I would suggest a little ignorant of both reality, and of the needs of prisoners if they are to begin the reform process.

Reform cannot begin without the willingness of the prisoner, and having to live in small uncomfortable cell is a bloody good incentive to at least try.

Ghandee

Pot wrote:

The Hotel behind Joels on the Naas road was converted from Prison cell pods Dutch Co i think

Really????

Dravokivich

socroni,

I'd love to know what you were searching for to find a thread from a year ago.

biko

Thread/news are old.