Effectiveness of prison

[godwulf]

What was truly amusing was watching her on discharge, crying to her mother, insisting that she was now having trouble walking because of the house-arrest bracelet.

Many years ago, I was in the security office of a store where a shoplifting suspect was being held - it was this scraggly-looking little guy of about 30, who'd been caught trying to walk out of the store with several Polaroid film packs stuck in his pants; he was sitting in a chair with his hands cuffed behind him, and as soon as the police arrived, he started whining: "Officer, these handcuffs really hurt my wrists...they really hurt my wrists." The Phoenix PD officer stopped by the chair, looked down his nose at the guy, and just said, "They're supposed to." And walked on.