Do you think all pensioners should commit a crime to be put in prison for the winter?

I think they should put all the old folk in prisons, where they will be well looked after and checked up on regularly, and put all the prisoners in old people's homes where they will be ill treated and neglected.

Back in the 1970s I used to know a woman who would deliberately get herself arrested every September (she used illegal drugs in front of the police), and the judge would obligingly sentence her to six months in jail. Most jails are very clean and tidy. The food is not bad. You get TV and all the books you want from the library. You can sometimes take educational courses. And my friend said that a number of her friends usually did the same thing, so she had plenty of enjoyable company til they were all let out in the springtime.

On the other hand, the famous "hippy" author Richard Brautigan said that when he was growing up in the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s, he could find no work anywhere and was slowly starving to death, so he asked the police what it would take to get locked up in their nice warm jail for the winter, and they told him he would have to do something wrong. So he threw a rock through the front window of the police station. But the cops were not true to their word, and instead of putting him in jail, they had him "committed" to the state psychiatric hospital, where he was tortured with "anti-psychotic medication," "electroshock therapy," etc., and it pretty much ruined his life.

Part of my nurse's training was spent in different prisons throughout California. Nothing I saw during those 6 weeks made me think it would be a good place to spend a day,much less the entire winter. I think that all of the low income seniors should came out just beyond the gates of the White House and ask the president personally for help. Bring your blankets,I'll be the one wearing the purple hat.

Even that won't work in some places. The prisons and jails have become so crowded that they're letting lesser offenders off with house arrest or probation and keeping only the felons. So you would have to do something really serious to get the three hots and a cot . And then they would keep you a lot longer than a winter.

No, I don't think they should. Going into prison is something that changes your life forever, and any kind of crime is wrong. I do however understand your point, and feel that pensioners should be given more help with bills etc during the expensive winter months.

I have never been in one, but do not relish the fact either. I think there would be roaches and mice among other things on two legs. Just wrap up warmly. I can put on more clothes, but only take off so many!

I don't know where you live but in California pensioners would become victims inside our jails. I would hope that whatever city you live in there would be some sort of funds available for those who cannot afford to buy gas/oil/propane.

Did you her about the guy a short while back who purposely robbed a bank for one dollar so he could go to jail and get medical attention - true story.

Well, if things get as bad as last winter for me, I'll have to look at the possibility!

Knowing mu luck, I'd get any sentence but a spell in clink!

that's my retirement plan B, make sure it's a federal crime...federal prisons have much better conditions, keep it non violent, such as a note to a bank teller, state that you have no weapon but you are robbing the bank. a conceived weapon has harsher penalties.