Prison or Club Med?

Let's say you're looking for a holiday-destination. A mild climate, nice natives and good food. Tidy accommodation and soft sea-breezes. You don't want to do too much, and so a flat screen TV would be nice. Where you can watch R-rated movies practically all day long, and nobody tells you you shouldn't. The staff tries to make your life as easy as possible. Not because they want to, but someone has told them so. You won't get a cold, because there's underfloor heating in your room.

A landscaped setting with nice green grass where, if you get bored and want to get away from all this pampering, you can play petanque or golf. Sometimes, weather permitting, you can go on a trip to the beach or there's a barbecue in the spacious grounds, also organized by these kind folks. You don't have to pay for all this luxury, so of course you'll go.

Let's say you're on a tight budget; in fact you don't want to pay at all! Where in the world can you still expect this 6 star treatment and get it all for free?

You would think this is an advertisement for Club Med, but it is not.

It is New Zealand Prisons.

The facts are there: 70% rise in inmates over the past 10 years (7700 inmates at the moment, on a population of 4.000.000),
80% of these are serving their second (or more) term,
employment in prison is only 13 hours per week.

These figures don't surprise me at all.

I won't say that I want to go to prison, as it would involve a criminal act on my part, and I'm just not the type. And forgetting to pay your Library-fine of $1 won't get you in there. But are these institutions really meant to punish or to pamper?