Justice for the pensioners or the delinquents?

A Norwegian prison, click here for more pictures

How about this idea?  Put our old in the jails and the criminals in the homes of the old.  It is of course up to the elderly whether they want to or not.  But consider this:

In jail the retired would have:

• Permanent companionship
• Hot meals every day and on time
• Free juridical assistance.
• Every day access to bathing, time off and walks
• No need to make food, go shopping, washing the dishes, cleaning the house or washing clothes
• All the necessary medicine and regular access to health services for free
• No need to pay rent
• Permanent 24/7 video surveillance, and included immediate emergency assistance in case of accident or other need
• Bedding changed twice a week and clothes washed and ironed with regularity
• Every twenty minutes a visit by a guard. Any correspondence or messages to be handed over personally
• A dedicated place for receiving family and other visitors
• Access to library, exercise room, physical therapy and a chapel
• Visits by a priest and volunteers if so desired
• Encouragement to take up a profession or a study, including adequate installations, teachers and equipment for free
• Free clothes and products for personal hygiene
• The right to live in a private and very secure building, with protected yard for exercise and socializing
• Access to reading, computer, television, radio and telephones
• Access to secretarial pool, psychologists, social workers, politicians, journalists, Amnesty international etc. - all available for listening concerning complaints  
• All employees, such as guards and secretaries, obliged to observe a strict code of conduct or risk harsh punishment.
• Guaranteed adherence to all human rights according to treaties signed and observed by Portugal.

On the other hand in the private (ex-) homes of the retired, the criminals would be forced to stay and have:

• 200 euros to live on a month in a small home or room, having no maintenance or improvements done the last 50 years
• Nobody to clean
• Food only if made, often cold and with irregularity
• Clothes bought only with own money needing cleaning and repairs
• Living alone with no surveillance
• Forget to eat and take necessary medicine, and nobody around to help
• From time to time to be cheated, conned, robbed or even assaulted physically
• Possibility of dying without anybody noticing for months or even years
• To die after waiting months or years for a doctor's appointment or a surgical procedure.
• To be ignored by politicians and institutions
• Nobody to complain to
• Baths only every two weeks with a risk of falling and getting hurt in the old bathtub
• Passing a miserable time in winter due to not being able to afford heating
• The daily entertainment would be soap operas on the TV

Considering the above, I think all tax payers would agree it would be much better to take care of the elderly by putting them in jail, and punish the criminals by putting them out.  Perhaps the criminals would think twice after having lived a few years as a retiree.

The brilliant comparisons and the idea above are not mine.  A big hat tip and thanks for the permission to reproduce in English to the blog:  Apodrecetuga

75% of the 2,5 million retired in Portugal live on the equivalent of minimum salary or less.  The minimum pensions are either 189, 227, or 246 euros per month.  More than one million pensioners receive a sub-subsistence minimum pension.  They are the real poor in Portugal.  It is basically impossible to live on minimum salary not to mention a minimum pension in one of the large cities considering rent, electricity, water, gas, food, medicine and so on. The situation is beyond shameful.  Considering the money lost due to corruption and carelessness, the absurd number of public constructions such as highways and roundabouts - the situation is criminal.