Ive had a similar discussion with AOG (
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1221595-4.html ) who seems to believe everything he reads in the rags regarding prisons been holiday camps.
The time Ive spent in jail has been awful. Locked up 23 hours a day( with some right idiots as well ), pig swill for food, bullying screws, having to wear clothes (including underwear) that has been worn by hundreds of inmates before you and sleeping on stained (with god only knows what) matresses,no privacy and having to deficate and urinate in front of someone else. The lonliness is the biggest killer. Been parted from your friends and family is a bigger punishment than been locked up. Someone else has already said that prisons are foul, stinking hell holes. That the understatment of the year.
But if you want to carry on believing the media that jails are holiday camps carry on. I wouldnt want my grandparents to be in one.