Picture an inmate reclining on his bunk in his cell at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem or the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton with TV remote in hand, flipping through a couple-dozen cable channels looking for the right program.

Sound like a nice place to be, a vacation spot? Maybe that’s what inmates will conclude when more of them in Oregon’s prison system are given access to cable TV in their cells.

Television sets will go on sale in the Salem prison’s canteen in January for 320 long-term inmates. The public will not be paying for cable TV for the inmates. They’ll purchase sets from their meager prison-job earnings. The cable is paid for by a collective inmate trust.

Meanwhile, the Pendleton prison is preparing a housing unit for privileged inmates with cells wired for cable.

Lest the public conclude that personal television sets are something new in prisons, Oregon’s "big house" maximum-security penitentiary in Salem already is wired for cable, where more than 1,000 of the state’s most dangerous prisoners are able to flip through 25 channels on their personal sets.

While in-cell cable TV might seem like the humane thing to do, Oregon’s correctional officials must be reminded that life in prison should not be too cushy for the robbers, rapists and drug dealers sentenced to go there.

Prisons should be places where inmates are prepared to return to their communities sober and sensible. They should also be places of punishment with the vast majority of parolees vowing they’ll never return to such places again.

The alternative to in-cell television is groups of 30 or 40 prisoners gathering in a cell block to watch television. Sure, there are arguments and fights that ensue over what football game or sit-com to watch or who gets the best seats. But inmates are also supposed to be taught how to get along in groups. What better place is there to teach courtesy and civility than in a TV room?

In-cell cable television is a program that should be switched off in Oregon’s prisons.

Imagine that …

Imagine that a high school girls’ volleyball team would set out one season to be successful. Imagine if the team won 10 games in a row, then 15, and then 20.

THIS YEAR’S La Grande High School volleyball team won 22 consecutive games, losing for the first time Thursday at Baker High School.

Think of baseball’s greatest teams: the New York Yankees, the Atlanta Braves. They win a lot of games, but losses come their way, too.

A 22-game win streak is significant. What the LHS volleyball team accomplished was amazing.