See where the cult of self-esteem gets us? First "child-centered" education, now "inmate-centered" prisons:
Corrections Canada won't let guards at maximum security prisons wear stab-proof vests because it sends a confrontational "signal" to prisoners. "If you have that kind of presence symbolized by (a stab-proof vest), you're sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person," said Tim Krause.
"It interferes with what we call 'dynamic security.' We want staff to talk to prisoners, to see how they're doing."
The guards know how they're doing, and they know the inmates are dangerous. Otherwise, most of them wouldn't be there. Self-protection and open conversation are not mutually exclusive, and it takes a particularly PC-addled sort of brain to want to break down the physical barriers between inmates and guards. Does Krause want to get rid of those nasty old bars and locks too, on the basis that those might interfere with "dynamic security?"
Posted by kswygert at March 22, 2004 02:51 PM