Basic rights such as enough food and reasonable hygiene is impossible for most prisoners in Burma's jails

Those who have been freed recounted how they barely survived with insufficient food and lack of proper medical treatment when they were ill.

Many prisoners are sent to labour camps in remote areas, some of them never to come back alive because of extremely harsh conditions.

Do you think prisoners in Burma deserve better treatment?
What are their basic rights and how can that be ensured?

Some of the emails from the listeners

Human rights cannot be taken away from any human only because someone has been charged with crime. Most criminals who committed crimes made wrong decisions in their life. Usually criminals don't know how to make the right decisions due to lack of EDUCATION. So, should the prisons and jails be purely humanity hell or should they be the place to train these criminals how to make right decisions behind bars and some how to support the society when they are released? Another serious view point is H.L.A. Hearts defines law as "Orders backed by threats". The threat says not to do politics. The worse crime one can commit in a dictators' country is POLITICS. So, are these political prisoners are really dangerous to the society? Even more so, should political prisoners in Burma rights have to be taken away from them such as they can not meet with any family members? Does Ideology really dangerous for a society, or just the leaders are so afraid to lose their power? I have so many questions. Even if so many Burmese Citizens and I have a lot of good answers for the situations of Burmese political prisoners, these are just words simply disappear in the thin air after we have spoken. But, our duty is to speak out the truth whether the wall can listen or not.
Tom Tun Calgary Canada

Basically, all Burmese people inside the country are prisoners as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi once said. But there is a slight difference how big and how small. I think that's exactly true. If you take a look at the people, soldiers themselves (including General Than Shwe) are prisoners somehow. It's clear that he himself is a political prisoner or war criminal or fugitive living in hiding in the forest, so are all of them.

When we take a look at ordinary people (including monks) and others like me, we don't dare to say anything we think because all military personnel (any style in clothes) are watching us in hiding and they are reporting to their seniors. Military personnel are afraid of us and we are afraid of them. We all are forced to do something. All in all, our country is not like a normal one but just a prison. That's all about a big prison if you wish to call.

Take a look at a small prison such as Insein, you will see the same kind of torture in smaller place. We heard touchier torture in some cases. What a miserable prison of the whole country!

Actually, most criminals in small prison here today are gamblers (2 digit lottery and 3 digit lottery players). They are becoming prisoners because our country is so poor; they have to do something to survive for themselves; and another prisoners such as "police" are cooperating with these ordinary gamblers and get cash from them for their survivals too and the gamblers get the license to do such a business , but govt another kind of prisoners "soldiers" who also need money for their survivals, make another different order to arrest these ordinary people gamblers if they can't give another enough money for these soldiers to survive. So they're all becoming prisoners but all are prisoners as I said before.

Ye Myint, Taungyi, Burma

Should prisoners in Burma be treated better? I have more questions.
1. Should the people in Burma who are not in the prisons be treated better? YES. 2. Should the victims of cyclone be treated better? YES.
3. Should the people in Burma be free of oppressive military government? YES.
4. Should Daw Aung San Su Kyi be free? YES
5. Should forced labour be stopped in Burma? YES
6. Should child soldiers be stopped in Burma as well? YES
There are more that we can add to the list above with obvious answers. But again then what?
Khin Maung Phyu, Florida, USA