High Profile Porridge Options

[Greeneyes]

So, I'm putting captions on cats today, and I come across another article about Paris Hilton. In case you actually have something to do with your lives other than trawl through articles about anything and everything, here's a little summary.

Last year, Paris Hilton was caught drink-driving and had her licence suspended for 3 years. She was pulled over by police earlier this year, and was given a 45 day jail sentence, which has now been reduced to 23 for 'good behaviour', which she will serve in short order. The articles in question arose not because some celebrity was caught comitting a crime, but because people were trying to get her off the hook. Some time after she received her sentence, petitions arose on the internet, from fans (as a side note, what does this woman do that generates fans?) who thought that she should be let off. At the time of the first article going up, one such petition had around 11,000 names. Naturally, the internet being the residence of many people, other petitions arose doing the exact opposite. I believe these ended up outweighing the original, but this is not the point.

I take issue with several things raised by these articles. Firstly, the very idea of petitioning the Governator to let her off is ludicrous. It also irritates me beyond belief that she apparently has commented on the petition, which appeared on myspace, encouraging people to sign it. People should not be sentenced according to how popular they are. Simple as that.

Secondly, it irritates me that she used ignorance as a defence, as apparently, she employs someone to open all of her mail, and therefore didn't know that her licence had been suspended. Allegedly, she just signs whatever this person puts under her nose (which, I might add, resulted in someone making the marvellous suggestion that someone should put the anti-Paris petition in front of her). I really hope for the sake of the collective intelligence of humanity that she plays up the stupid when it suits her. I mean, seriously, did she think there would be no repercussions for doing something which is illegal because it's dangerous? But again, this is not the point.

Finally, the point. Whilst doing porridge, she will be staying in a special block reserved for "celebrities, public officials, police officers, and other high-profile inmates". This is really what I wanted to bring up. Should 'high profile' people really be segregated like this? I doubt they receive any special treatment, but still. Exceptions are being made based on the popularity and fame of a person. I can understand the argument that perhaps she would be victimised were she placed with 'regular' inmates, but I'm fairly certain that there are prison wardens to prevent this taking place, and is that not just another price of fame?

Should this seperation of celebrities and common men take place?

Discuss.

[mooooooooooopo]

Yes, they should be in a seperate place because they are more at risk than an average person for some sort of harrassment. They should receive no special treatment, but I think that if they were in with the general population, they could be at greater risk, which would not be fair.

Having the risk of being thrown in with the general population would provide greater incentive for celebrities and such to obey the law instead of assuming they're above it. Putting them in seperate cells but in the same area as the rest of the prisoners would work well in my opinion. They could be taken to a seperate area when out of the cells maybe or just better supervised to prevent attempts at violence towards them.