Better to be in jail than in some nursing homes
This is despite the fact that prisoners are able to look after themselves, whereas many nursing home residents require assistance to wash, dress and eat.
Some of our prisoners are suing the state for the indignity of having to slop out.
In nursing homes, some our elderly can’t even get to a bucket and are forced to endure the indignity of sleeping in a soiled bed. I don’t hear them suing!
One prison recently received an award for catering excellence. In some of our nursing homes, food is meagre, quality is poor, and scraps are reused to make soup.
Some nursing homes berate families for failing to provide clothes and toiletries for their loved ones. In prison, these are provided for free.
Some nursing homes don’t bother washing clothes, and demand that relatives do it. Doing the laundry is a standard activity in prisons.
Prisoners have TV and recreation to while away the hours and are allowed out for daily exercise. Some nursing home residents are lucky if they have a radio, and others are confined to their beds all day and never get outside.
Our politicians get excellent travelling allowances on prison visiting committees. Perhaps they should be visiting nursing homes instead. After all, prisoners can’t vote, but nursing home residents can.
In some nursing homes, residents are stripped of all their personal belongings, which are routinely shared around.
The abolition of material possessions and the sharing of wealth is an article of faith of both Christianity and communism, making the nursing home the only place in Ireland where both of these creeds have been fully implemented.
For three decades the state stole money from the elderly in their care.
When this theft was discovered, what was the initial reaction? It was to refuse to repay the money and retroactively legalise the theft! Prisoners are those who steal from society, give nothing back, and yet are treated like kings.
The elderly are those who gave to society, ask for nothing back, and yet are treated like dirt.
Winston Churchill once said that you can judge a civilisation by the way it treats its prisoners. He obviously never saw the way the Irish treat their elderly.
Jason FitzHarris
Rivervalley
Swords
Co Dublin
