I have no direct experience of the prison system but, from what I understand, Belmarsh is for Category A prisoners, part of the deal is that they get a helicopter flying above from the court room to the prison.
In the UK we also have open prisons, where they have nice gardens and the prisoners agree to stay on the prison side of the fence. Open prisons are for white collar criminals that have behaved themselves in general population prisons.
Belmarsh is an institution with a name that goes before it like how Guantanamo or US SuperMax prisons have a reputation.
A suitcase full of cocaine will get a mostly harmless gentleman classed as Category A and escorted to Belmarsh, apart from people doing the wrong things in the drugs trade you have to have killed someone or sent someone to hospital to be 'Category A' - worst of the worse.
Admittedly Assange might just stroll off an open prison, however, Belmarsh is a bit extreme, apart from anything else it makes him into this super-villain whereas the British state should have not bothered giving him and his ego the 'benefit' of that. I blame the Tory government for not getting this call right, they should have used standard procedures to put him in custody in a standard prison, category B, not Belmarsh.
Historically countries have had special prisons such as the Tower of London which are reserved for high profile threats to the status quo, or a place to lock up a leader from another country. It seems this antique way still continues, anyone who messes with the Official Secrets Act is probably resigned to jail anyway, so this is probably why it has to be Belmarsh.
Remember that guy who murdered scores of young adults on that island somewhere in Scandinavia a few years back and how he ended up in quite a posh prison where everything was nice? The British government should have such a place for political enemies. There is no reason to put the likes of Assange - love him or hate him - in with people who are known murderers.
Apart from anything else the acting government run the risk of ending up in prison themselves. The former chair of the Tory party - Jeffrey Archer - had to be sent to jail a few years back. I think he too had a stint in Belmarsh. A lot of people would like to see Tny Blir in jail too - or just executed - and more recent Tory leaders have been in dubious legal territory with adventures in Libya. They could all be given the Belmarsh treatment as the situation currently stands, you would think they would have a Norway style nice prison just in case they end up there themselves.
In the UK we also have open prisons, where they have nice gardens and the prisoners agree to stay on the prison side of the fence. Open prisons are for white collar criminals that have behaved themselves in general population prisons.
Belmarsh is an institution with a name that goes before it like how Guantanamo or US SuperMax prisons have a reputation.
A suitcase full of cocaine will get a mostly harmless gentleman classed as Category A and escorted to Belmarsh, apart from people doing the wrong things in the drugs trade you have to have killed someone or sent someone to hospital to be 'Category A' - worst of the worse.
Admittedly Assange might just stroll off an open prison, however, Belmarsh is a bit extreme, apart from anything else it makes him into this super-villain whereas the British state should have not bothered giving him and his ego the 'benefit' of that. I blame the Tory government for not getting this call right, they should have used standard procedures to put him in custody in a standard prison, category B, not Belmarsh.
Historically countries have had special prisons such as the Tower of London which are reserved for high profile threats to the status quo, or a place to lock up a leader from another country. It seems this antique way still continues, anyone who messes with the Official Secrets Act is probably resigned to jail anyway, so this is probably why it has to be Belmarsh.
Remember that guy who murdered scores of young adults on that island somewhere in Scandinavia a few years back and how he ended up in quite a posh prison where everything was nice? The British government should have such a place for political enemies. There is no reason to put the likes of Assange - love him or hate him - in with people who are known murderers.
Apart from anything else the acting government run the risk of ending up in prison themselves. The former chair of the Tory party - Jeffrey Archer - had to be sent to jail a few years back. I think he too had a stint in Belmarsh. A lot of people would like to see Tny Blir in jail too - or just executed - and more recent Tory leaders have been in dubious legal territory with adventures in Libya. They could all be given the Belmarsh treatment as the situation currently stands, you would think they would have a Norway style nice prison just in case they end up there themselves.