More Jails

[andym]

Look at this load of old tosh!

One of the country's top judges says prisons are now so full offenders should only be sent to jail if absolutely necessary.

Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, said more offenders should receive community sentences.


What is happening???????These bloody crims need a Punishment that fits the crime and one that will be deterrant,not painting some bloody meeting house for Somalian Lesbians Macrame Circle in London!

I just cant wait to see what the next load of old bollox they come out with,no wonder there was a Peasants Revolt!!!!!!

 

[chieftiff]

I think it's worth mentioning that the guy isn't a complete idiot ( although he is a judge so possibly he is out of touch ) he brings up some good points like what is the point in sticking anyone in prison for a couple of weeks? If their crimes are that insignificant how can you justify the cost to the prison service in time, manpower and money? and how can you possibly pretend to educate or rehabilitate anyone in a fortnight.

Wouldn't it be better to free up some prison officers to supervise chain gangs? (my slant on his opinion)

As usual the press have grabbed his apparently outrageous statement and edited it to suit rather than investigating it's truth.

 

[janner]

Another point was that prisons shouldn't be used as drug rehab units, surely it would be better to have specific, secure units for drug abusers, any that could be weaned off drugs would help to cut both the crime rate and re offending.

 

[MightyCrash]

I thought it highly funny that on Sky News yesturday the ran with a story that said if Football holligans did not give us their passports they would face 6 months in Jail - then, immediatly after ran with the story about people not going to prison unless absolutly necessary!

 

[Maxi_77]

Another point was that prisons shouldn't be used as drug rehab units, surely it would be better to have specific, secure units for drug abusers, any that could be weaned off drugs would help to cut both the crime rate and re offending.

I think we need to find a new way of dealing with the drug problem entirely, the present plan is just not working.

Peter

 

[Maxi_77]

I thought it highly funny that on Sky News yesturday the ran with a story that said if Football holligans did not give us their passports they would face 6 months in Jail - then, immediatly after ran with the story about people not going to prison unless absolutly necessary!

Obviously they need to free up the space for the football hooligans.

Peter

 

[SILVER_FOX]

I agree, he does make some good points but the real problem is the lack of space in our prisons. Prison is meant to serve as both a deterrent to those who would commit a crime and as fitting punishment when they choose to ignore the law.

The reality is that sentencing is becoming a joke with shorter sentences dished out for all crimes including the more serious ones such as rape, manslaughter and even murder.

Life no longer means life and the number of cases where these people are back on the streets in relatively short order are rising all the time.

 

[Maxi_77]

Prison is also supposed to attempt to rehabilitate the offender so that the chances of re-offending are reduced. Considering the vast majority of those in prison have already served one sentence it does seem to be failing us in this respect.

Life in fact does mean life, just that part of the sentence may be served out of prison. A released lifer can be locked up again if he/she breaks the terms of the licence, or re-offends. The fact that very few ever do go back tends to indicate that the system tends to work.

Peter

 

[Skunkmiester]

Drug addicts need treating not locking away. Drug addicts should not be treated like criminals. They should be treated harshley but on properly constructed courses, not locking away with real criminals.

Some kind of boot camp style camp but not just harsh treatment, try to reconstruct the human being at the same time.

 

[Maxi_77]

I agree that addicts who have not committed other criminal offences need treatment not punishment, and I suspect that a structured 'boot camp' type course could help as it could with those in the early stages of their criminal career.

One of the big problems with drug addiction is the vast ammount of low level crime it generates to line the pushers pockets, and at present we are doing nothing to really impact on this cash flow. This is where wereally have to think out of the box to make real progress. The present system by offering vast returns to the pushers is just self perpetuating.

Peter

 

[asst_dep_to_dep_asst]

More jails? Yes. Separate prison facilities for drug addicts? Probably, but getting a user off drugs is a very difficult problem. Firstly, they must want to lose their addiction and, if their only potential after weaning is more of the same, why should they even want it?

There can only be one answer to the big money made from illicit drug supply and that is to make it cheaply available through official sources. De-criminilisation is probably a step too far, but if access is made very expensive and difficult, addicts have no choice but to find funding, which means crime of some sort to generate the cash.

It's a conundrum, but civilised man is clever enough to overcome this.

The judge was absolutely right that short sentences are ineffective. It does make me laugh to think that anybody really believes that life sentences are for life and the fact that very few people are returned to prison after release on licence means that the system works. Prisoners released on licence are merely conveniently forgotten, along with those asylum seekers whose applications are rejected. It's all just too much trouble.

 

[NozzyNozzer]

Drug addicts need treating not locking away. Drug addicts should not be treated like criminals. They should be treated harshley but on properly constructed courses, not locking away with real criminals.

Some kind of boot camp style camp but not just harsh treatment, try to reconstruct the human being at the same time.

HMS Raleigh?

 

[John854]

Your jails are overcrowded and just a breeding ground for more serious stuff on the prisoners' eventual release. Other than treason-arson-murder-rape-GBH-- long prison sentences are not the answer. What is needed badly is a return to the military style detention-short-sharp-discipline for a period of say 90 days.

When I was in the MOB shortly after Lord Nelson put his ticket in, there were not many volunteers returning for a second dose. Rig of the Day-duck suits.Your bed a lump of wood. A blanket every other night. Slop out 6am. First seven days bread and water. Every day a pound of oakum(tarred rope) fibres of which had to be loosened by picking with fingers. If you didn't finish it all that day-No problem-You got another pound in the morning added to the one you hadn't finished. Finger tips ended up raw and bleeding, but heh! Nobody said that life was fair, eh? Exercise-No problem. Assault course through lumpy wet country. If you didn't smarten up on the course you were invited onto the drill square. Double round with a 20 lb sack of wet sand up over your head. When your arms were screaching out in pain and the drill pig wouldn't order a halt, you swore you would kill the bastard when you got back 'outside.'

But then after all that you just thought, '**** you-It was a piece of piss. Do it on me ******* head.'

My believe is that if short, sharp sentences like these were the norm for the usual likely lads who think of themselves as 'hard cases, ' half your prisons would be empty in no time.

Do you know roughly what it costs to keep some stupid pillock in the slammer for 365 days? About 80K. Lot of money, eh? What a waste especially when they come out at present much more 'criminally educated' than when they went in.


'The cheered her from the waterside, they watched her from the shore,
Drop swiftly down the Mersey tide till she was seen no more.' (The Old Breed)

 

[NozzyNozzer]

Your jails are overcrowded and just a breeding ground for more serious stuff on the prisoners' eventual release. Other than treason-arson-murder-rape-GBH-- long prison sentences are not the answer. What is needed badly is a return to the military style detention-short-sharp-discipline for a period of say 90 days.

When I was in the MOB shortly after Lord Nelson put his ticket in, there were not many volunteers returning for a second dose. Rig of the Day-duck suits.Your bed a lump of wood. A blanket every other night. Slop out 6am. First seven days bread and water. Every day a pound of oakum(tarred rope) fibres of which had to be loosened by picking with fingers. If you didn't finish it all that day-No problem-You got another pound in the morning added to the one you hadn't finished. Finger tips ended up raw and bleeding, but heh! Nobody said that life was fair, eh? Exercise-No problem. Assault course through lumpy wet country. If you didn't smarten up on the course you were invited onto the drill square. Double round with a 20 lb sack of wet sand up over your head. When your arms were screaching out in pain and the drill pig wouldn't order a halt, you swore you would kill the bastard when you got back 'outside.'

But then after all that you just thought, '**** you-It was a piece of piss. Do it on me ******* head.'

My believe is that if short, sharp sentences like these were the norm for the usual likely lads who think of themselves as 'hard cases, ' half your prisons would be empty in no time.

I heard NDQs were bad, and clearly they were! And I thought getting 6 cuts was bad, obviously I was mistaken!!! 8O The rest of the description sounds like my naval training bar the blankets ever other night, the slopping out and the oakum picking. :?