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Prisons "full to bursting"
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
SInce the New Year the prison population has been rising at 1,000 inmates per month, and since New Labour took power in 1997 the prison population has risen by 15,500 inmates. This has now meant that on 16 April the UK Prison Service had 26 free spaces in the entire country- the prisons are running at fuill capacity. If people continue to be jailed at current rates then the Government's projected prison capacity for 2006- which takes into account an extra 3,263 places to be created later this year- will be totally subscribed in just three months.
The blame for this resides purely with Blair and New Labour. In order to pander to the rabid right-wing Blair has overseen crackdown after crackdown, and has overseen a "failure to promote community penalties" according to NAPO, the union of probation officers.
I find it truly ironic that because of the complete marginalisation of community sentencing for minor crime, inmates are now being allowed out of license earlier than they should be, and with fewer checks on their suitability. In the clamour for jail for offenders, New Labour has ensured that now people are let out "tagged" so long as they show no risk of violence, whereas it used to be showing no risk of violence, intimidation and other re-offending. Result? 1,600 inmates are now allowed out on license every month, or which 300 are returned straight back to prison for breaking the terms of their license, 50 of whom re-offended.
In order to free up prison cells to accomodate all the prisoners jailed in order to show that Blair is "tough on crime", more and more lifers are being released on life licenses. NAPO are concerned by this "panic measure", because it means people are being relased who shouldn't be in order to accomodate those who are being jailed who shouldn't be.
Something for all those who subscribe to the view that all offenders should be "locked up" to think about.
Information source: Private Eye, 16 April 2004
The blame for this resides purely with Blair and New Labour. In order to pander to the rabid right-wing Blair has overseen crackdown after crackdown, and has overseen a "failure to promote community penalties" according to NAPO, the union of probation officers.
I find it truly ironic that because of the complete marginalisation of community sentencing for minor crime, inmates are now being allowed out of license earlier than they should be, and with fewer checks on their suitability. In the clamour for jail for offenders, New Labour has ensured that now people are let out "tagged" so long as they show no risk of violence, whereas it used to be showing no risk of violence, intimidation and other re-offending. Result? 1,600 inmates are now allowed out on license every month, or which 300 are returned straight back to prison for breaking the terms of their license, 50 of whom re-offended.
In order to free up prison cells to accomodate all the prisoners jailed in order to show that Blair is "tough on crime", more and more lifers are being released on life licenses. NAPO are concerned by this "panic measure", because it means people are being relased who shouldn't be in order to accomodate those who are being jailed who shouldn't be.
Something for all those who subscribe to the view that all offenders should be "locked up" to think about.
Information source: Private Eye, 16 April 2004
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Comments
Yeah!
Sod building schools and hospitals, lets build more jails in order to accomodate all these people who shouldn't be in jail anyway!
:yeees:
That is probably me just stating the obvious but surely that the gist of it?
Oh dear. You have no idea what you have just opened yourself up to, do you?
Building more prisons is not the answer, using what capacity we already have is. What is the point of sending fine dodgers to prison, minor offenders - for example?
Many people in prison needn't be put in prison in the first place.
Oh dear.
1. Are "child killers" and "murderers" actually different, or do you think ALL "child killers" deserve bad conditions, regardless of reason or fault?
2. You can't have it both ways- either prison is "too easy" or there are "poor conditions". Which is it?
3. A large number of inmates are jailed for non-violent offences, especially among women. Most women are jailed for non-payment of fines, frequently from non-payment of TV Licensing fines. Should they be in jail?
4. Go and look at the website for the Howard League, and get educated. Unless you think endemic bullying, self-harm, depression, suicide, ill-health, appalling hygiene, ritual beatings and rampant drug use are favourable things to have in society, that is.
Yeah, 'cause a cannabis grower really needs rat's nibbling at him while he sleeps in his little bunk at night to teach him a lesson :yeees:
You are very fickle. It's better than being stubborn I suppose.
Indeed. That's the point.
At the end of last year Martin Narey, the then Prisons Director-General, asked his staff to discover how many people there were in jail for not paying their TV licence. The answer on the day they looked was: one.
source:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/drugs/story/0,11908,892107,00.html
there are some very talented and educated people in jail ...there are the stinking rich and the hoplessly poor. there are the meek and mild and the ferocious.
could you survive?
Interesting. Glad to see that situation has improved, at least.
That opinion is too simplistic to ever have any merit, I'm afraid.
You assume that people think about consequences. They often don't. People are complex.
how many people are held in british jails for long periods of time without having been found guilty of anything? thousands ...it could happen to you or your dad or another family member ...and after twelve months porridge ...they get found not guilty. these thousands of people shold suffer should they?
Its not that simple, people aren't that simple. I work with ex-offenders, most never think they'll get caught or are too desperate to think about consequences or don't give a shit at the time.
But seeing as we don't live in good old 1950's Soviet Union, maybe community service can be extended to those who would usually be imprisoned for months rather than years. Instead of niceties like helping move furnature they can do work more befitting them for the length of their sentance. "Breaking rocks in the hot sun, I fought the law and the law won" etc.
This would free up space for those who truely deserve to be banged up.
You sound like a Stalinist.
At least someone realises what that bastard did. I don't really believe in that little "policy" obviously.
For those who don't know what he did.
The "Road of bones" was build by prisoners in Stalin's Russia between Yakutsk and Magadan in Siberia. The bodies of those who died in its construction were stripped of flesh and the bones ground down to make the basalt. The exact numbers of dead will never be known but it's said that one person died for every metre. The road is over 2000km long.
If anyone thinks our prisoners are poorly treated then remember it could be a lot, lot worse.
I saw some the other day, just walking up and down a main road picking up litter. They looked well and truly pissed off, but they were doing a service.
Think of all the money we could save if they were made to clean up streets, or help repair the stuff they have damaged.
Imagine the arsehole kid who keeps smashing windows being made to work with the joiners for a month fixing them.
Or the kid doing the graffiti being given a bucket and soap and washing the stuff off.
Boot camp is another good idea, send them away to camp for 12 months, teach them how to act like adults and hopefully give them a trade as well.
Prison should be reserved for the thieves and ass rapists. The guards should be given absolute authority, and prison should become a place that should be feared. Forget rehabilitation, the people who would be sent to prison would be sent there for punishment, and they'd recieve it.
I'm not saying turn them into dank hellholes, but make the regime more rigorous, make the food taste even shittier than it does, send them out in gangs to fix roads,or something similar, but turn it into the perk. Make it so they look forward to working outside, instead of the alternative of being left on your own for days at a time.
Talk about the ultimate hypocrisy.
Cause of anti-social behaviour?
Kids milling around with nothing to do but cause trouble
Solution?
Build sakte parks, hangout points, youth clubs
Result?
They get vandalised and wrecked as well.
One of the towns I work in has got a skate park, youth football team, hangout shelters, leisure centre e.t.c.
What do the kids do? Break windows, set cars on fire. They are mindless vandals.
They don't deserve any of the stuff they have been given, they are rewarded for their bad behaviour which is completely the wrong message
Ah, good. Thought it was just me.
You have such a simplistic view of people. Typical rightwinger really.
Look, if we treat all criminals badly and make them live in piss poor conditions for the rest of their lives, then we're no better than they are.
Prison is their punishment, not appaling conditions. It's against their human rights.
Yes, I would. And a lengthy prison sentence is what I call justice.
A prison sentence is enough. I can't really think of anything worse than having my freedom taken from me.
But, at the same time, prisons shouldn't be like old basements, with mould and rats running around. Does a cannabis grower or a tax dodger deserve that?