Prison Boss Bans Jokes In Jails

Steve Orchard, a head of operations at the Prison Service in England, wants to ban what he deems *sexist jokes* that were printed in a monthly newspaper that is dedicated to Britain's 83,000 convicts:

In a letter to the magazine's editors, the official, who works at Nottingham Prison, said he is not "fanatically 'PC' or lacking a sense of humour," but the jokes go too far.

He described some of the examples as "sexist in the extreme" and said they "should not, in my opinion, have been printed."

Mr Orchard insisted that some of the examples of gender prejudice would not have been acceptable if their target had been people with disabilities or those from a black or ethnic minority background.

He added: "Similarly, I do not think they were acceptable in that they tended to reinforce negative and inaccurate stereotypical perceptions of women as unintelligent, overly talkative, nagging, deceptive and inferior."

He said some prisoners' offending behaviour stems from their inappropriate attitude towards women. And that the Prison Service, despite some improvements, still remains probably overall "institutionally sexist in its staff culture," he added.

Mr Orchard said the magazine would be wise not to repeat its mistake - as good as an instruction, given his seniority.

Cool, Mr Orchard ended his diatribe with a veiled threat. Bravo, sir.

Mr Orchard is a giant among men. We need good people to stand up to these so called *joke tellers* and tell them that no, their humour will not do! We need a Mr Orchard to look these joke tellers straight in the eyes and say, "Your kind of humour is making me uncomfortable, please stop it now for you are wounding my delicate sensibilities". You go, Mr Orchard, you go girl!

I'm with Mr Orchard, I also believe that a life of crime starts with the words, "Did you hear the one about the feminist and the zucchini?" The time for action is now, we need to stop the joke tellers before they joke again!

Hey Hey ho ho, The Joke Tellers Gotta Go!