Israeli Court Says No Consoles For Prisoners

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Israeli Court Says No Consoles For Prisoners


A Tel Aviv judge has denied an Israeli prisoner's request for a game console in his cell because there's no reliable way to disable the unit's WiFi.

A prisoner serving a sentence of 16 years in an Israeli jail filed a petition to have an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 installed in his cell. Prisoners in the past were allowed to buy PS1 systems, he said, so he wanted an up-to-date rig for himself that would be "neutralized" to prevent any possibility of connecting to a wireless network. But the Israeli Prison Service opposed the idea, based on a "professional opinion" that "there are communication channels which cannot be blocked."

A Tel Aviv District Court sided with the prison service last month, denying the prisoner's application based on the IPS opinion that wireless adapters in current-gen hardware cannot be reliably disabled. "The problem is that the IPS opinion indicates that this action of disabling the internet connection device is completely impossible," the court ruled. Because the risk to prison security outweighs the benefits to prisoners [and, presumably, stressed-out prison staff], the petition was denied.

It's interesting, however, that the court did seem to note the value of having game consoles accessible to prisoners, saying [in a roughly Google-translated statement] that they are "part of the delicate management of the prisoner population." I don't know how the Israeli prison system works but the country is located right in the middle of a pretty rough neighborhood, so I would think they'd know a thing or two about keeping a lid on an unruly crowd. Lessons for the rest of the world, perhaps?

Source: Slashdot [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flaw.co.il%2Fcomputer-law%2Fdigital-assistant%2F2011%2F11%2F02%2Fbiton-v-the-prison-authority%2F]


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Thyunda

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May 4, 2009
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Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
 

yuval152

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Thyunda said:
Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
Lol yeah,those "prisnors" get to go to college,watch TV for,have free food,private leesons,and alot of other benifets that they get off our money,hell if it was up to me i would just lock them in a box. Also They shouldn't have consoles in jail to begin with,they need to rot in jail not have fun.
ZeppMan217 said:
yuval152 said:
Thyunda said:
Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
Lol yeah,those "prisnors" get to go to college,watch TV for,have free food,private leesons,and alot of other benifets that they get off our money,hell if it was up to me i would just lock them in a box. Also They shouldn't have consoles in jail to begin with,they need to rot in jail not have fun.
I understand that we're on the Internet, but you could totally use some of these "private leesons" and actually benefit from "benifets" they might provide.
Misspeled few words Hahaha Hilarious /Sarcasm misspelling a few words in english is horrible because my main language is hebrew, If you don't have anything meanful to post then don't spam.

Torrasque said:
yuval152 said:
Thyunda said:
Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
Lol yeah,those "prisnors" get to go to college,watch TV for,have free food,private leesons,and alot of other benifets that they get off our money,hell if it was up to me i would just lock them in a box. Also They shouldn't have consoles in jail to begin with,they need to rot in jail not have fun.

ZeppMan217 said:
yuval152 said:
Thyunda said:
Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
Lol yeah,those "prisnors" get to go to college,watch TV for,have free food,private leesons,and alot of other benifets that they get off our money,hell if it was up to me i would just lock them in a box. Also They shouldn't have consoles in jail to begin with,they need to rot in jail not have fun.
I understand that we're on the Internet, but you could totally use some of these "private leesons" and actually benefit from "benifets" they might provide.

Misspeled few words Hahaha Hilarious /Sarcasm misspelling a few words in english is horrible because my main language is hebrew, If you don't have anything meanful to post then don't spam.
Welcome to an internet forum.
On internet forums, we reply to comments with other comments. Modifying your first post with your response to a person's comment in regards to your first post, is really irritating and doesn't help your defence, when they are attacking your intelligence.

Oh, and I agree with Thyunda.
You'd think Israel, a country that doesn't really fuck around, would be more restricting to prisoners.
If I could get a console in a prison cell, what the fuck am I doing with my life?! I need to go kill someone asap.

Why would i want to get a prema ban for a "off-topic" post,i just put it in this post because one more warning and i get banned,i don't want to take risks.also "laughing at my intelligence" i just misspelled oh i'm gonna get crucified just for misspelling,a misspell is nothing than a human mistake.
 

Desworks

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Surely they could get a Gen I Xbox360, which doesn't have an in built wireless, making disabling the wifi quite simple...

Also, as a presponse to the pile of "don't give prisoners game consoles" comments, if giving them a game console cuts down on prison riots, wouldn't it be better to go with that?
 

ZeppMan217

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yuval152 said:
Thyunda said:
Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
Lol yeah,those "prisnors" get to go to college,watch TV for,have free food,private leesons,and alot of other benifets that they get off our money,hell if it was up to me i would just lock them in a box. Also They shouldn't have consoles in jail to begin with,they need to rot in jail not have fun.
I understand that we're on the Internet, but you could totally use some of these "private leesons" and actually benefit from "benifets" they might provide.
 

BlackWidower

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Nov 16, 2009
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Considering they were allowed PSOnes in the past, this seems a bit ridiculous. How's this, pop open the console and manually remove the Wi-Fi chip. Call up Sony or Microsoft or whatever, and considering the circumstances, they would likely tell you exactly where to look. If it bricks the console, well that seems really stupid.

Since prisoners in the past were allowed to have consoles, prisoners in the present should be allowed to have consoles. Morally, or legally, there's no reason why they shouldn't.
 

kebab4you

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Jan 3, 2010
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I'm sorry what? Are you telling me I can go to jail down in Israel, which would;
-house me
-feed me
-let me play games[footnote]And I thought the swedish prisons was to nice to their criminals ._.[/footnote]
And I should work because???
 

Ruairi iliffe

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Sep 13, 2010
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If its a similar system to the UK, i'd assume he would be paying for it himself, its just the request to get it in that counts. Also i do recall the same thing happening in Britain too, some guy wanted a PS3 but they couldnt guarantee it was cut off.

Which begs the question, why dont they get the guy an Older model Xbox360 then, those dont have wi-fi, caused me a bit of problems in the past because of that.
 

fnartilter

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Apr 13, 2010
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BlackWidower said:
Considering they were allowed PSOnes in the past, this seems a bit ridiculous. How's this, pop open the console and manually remove the Wi-Fi chip. Call up Sony or Microsoft or whatever, and considering the circumstances, they would likely tell you exactly where to look. If it bricks the console, well that seems really stupid.
Sony and Microsoft both have branches in Israel too, how convenient!

Seeing the effects of violent video games on the prison inmates would make for an interesting study (if it hasn't been done already).
 

Torrasque

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Aug 6, 2010
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yuval152 said:
Thyunda said:
Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
Lol yeah,those "prisnors" get to go to college,watch TV for,have free food,private leesons,and alot of other benifets that they get off our money,hell if it was up to me i would just lock them in a box. Also They shouldn't have consoles in jail to begin with,they need to rot in jail not have fun.

ZeppMan217 said:
yuval152 said:
Thyunda said:
Or, y'know, prisoners could go without consoles altogether, and actually be punished for whatever crime they committed.
Lol yeah,those "prisnors" get to go to college,watch TV for,have free food,private leesons,and alot of other benifets that they get off our money,hell if it was up to me i would just lock them in a box. Also They shouldn't have consoles in jail to begin with,they need to rot in jail not have fun.
I understand that we're on the Internet, but you could totally use some of these "private leesons" and actually benefit from "benifets" they might provide.
Misspeled few words Hahaha Hilarious /Sarcasm misspelling a few words in english is horrible because my main language is hebrew, If you don't have anything meanful to post then don't spam.
Welcome to an internet forum.
On internet forums, we reply to comments with other comments. Modifying your first post with your response to a person's comment in regards to your first post, is really irritating and doesn't help your defence, when they are attacking your intelligence.

Oh, and I agree with Thyunda.
You'd think Israel, a country that doesn't really fuck around, would be more restricting to prisoners.
If I could get a console in a prison cell, what the fuck am I doing with my life?! I need to go kill someone asap.
 

BlackWidower

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Nov 16, 2009
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fnartilter said:
BlackWidower said:
Considering they were allowed PSOnes in the past, this seems a bit ridiculous. How's this, pop open the console and manually remove the Wi-Fi chip. Call up Sony or Microsoft or whatever, and considering the circumstances, they would likely tell you exactly where to look. If it bricks the console, well that seems really stupid.
Sony and Microsoft both have branches in Israel too, how convenient!

Seeing the effects of violent video games on the prison inmates would make for an interesting study (if it hasn't been done already).
It might have, because as I said, they already had PSOnes in prison. Though Spyro 2 isn't exactly what one would call "violent." But if there was a study it probably wasn't publicized by the media because the result was not: "Video games kill people!" Which would get people freaking out.
 

Misterian

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Oct 3, 2009
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if their that worried about the prison's security, why not simply avoid connecting the consoles to the internet? what do they mean there's no reliable way ro keep consoles from being connected to Wifi?

I've had a 360 for years, and I've never been able to connect it to Xbox LIVE because I don't have the needed equipment for it.
 

elvor0

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BlackWidower said:
Considering they were allowed PSOnes in the past, this seems a bit ridiculous. How's this, pop open the console and manually remove the Wi-Fi chip. Call up Sony or Microsoft or whatever, and considering the circumstances, they would likely tell you exactly where to look. If it bricks the console, well that seems really stupid.

Since prisoners in the past were allowed to have consoles, prisoners in the present should be allowed to have consoles. Morally, or legally, there's no reason why they shouldn't.
We used to do/not do a lot of stuff in the past, doesn't mean we should do it. He IS a prisoner, and that should be a pretty good reason enough for him not having one. He's supposed to be being punished for his crimes, not having a laugh playing xbox.

Following your logic, there's no reason for him not to have a comfy sofa and a king size bed, but we don't give them to him because he's a prisoner.
 

orangeban

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Nov 27, 2009
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Interesting, is there really no way to disable the WiFi completely? Huh.

Anyway, the pressing issue is really, should prisoners get Xboxes in the first place? To which I say yes. As the article mentions, they are useful for controlling the prison population, which is quite a task when it is solely made up of bored criminals, many without a lot to lose.

Also, no matter how comfy you make prison, it's still a punishment. Why? Because you take away the prisoner's liberty, which is just below taking away their life on the scale of punishment. We take our liberty for granted, but it really is a fundamental right, and we cannot underestimate how difficult it can be to live without it. Moreso, I'm personally of the opinion that the goals of prison should be ranked in this order of importance:

1) Rehabilitation
2) Protecting the public
3) Punishment

Number 2 is accomplished as long as the guy is in prison, Xbox or not. I'd say the Xbox probably helps Number 1, because while we don't want prison to be lovely, making it fucking awful is not a good method of rehabilitation. Pro tip: If you want your prisoners not to commit crime, making them despise the jail, justice system and the state is not a good way to go about it.
 

BlackWidower

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Nov 16, 2009
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elvor0 said:
BlackWidower said:
Considering they were allowed PSOnes in the past, this seems a bit ridiculous. How's this, pop open the console and manually remove the Wi-Fi chip. Call up Sony or Microsoft or whatever, and considering the circumstances, they would likely tell you exactly where to look. If it bricks the console, well that seems really stupid.

Since prisoners in the past were allowed to have consoles, prisoners in the present should be allowed to have consoles. Morally, or legally, there's no reason why they shouldn't.
We used to do/not do a lot of stuff in the past, doesn't mean we should do it. He IS a prisoner, and that should be a pretty good reason enough for him not having one. He's supposed to be being punished for his crimes, not having a laugh playing xbox.

Following your logic, there's no reason for him not to have a comfy sofa and a king size bed, but we don't give them to him because he's a prisoner.
Punish? Do you even know what he did? Does it even matter? I guess it's just my lack of bloodlust, but I don't think prisons exist to "punish." I think prisons exist to stop them from hurting other people.

Plus, they are already being punished for the deed, whatever it is. They spend the majority of their time in a four by six foot cell, and any time they don't spend in the cell, they spend surrounded by people who would kill them so much as look at them. So, I think they are punished enough. If they would like a video game console to bring a shimmer of light to their dreary existence so they won't kill themselves, then I'm okay with it.

Besides, how is a video game any more of "a laugh" then a chess board, or a deck of cards, or a novel, or a TV. Which (last I checked) are all things they allow in prisons. Their lives suck enough. All they're asking for is something to make their lives suck a little bit less.