Drug Smuggers

[Workingman]

Aggers, somebody I know was sent to a young offender's institution, and from there to prison when he reached 18, for stealing a tin of beans, catering size, during the Miner's strike.

He vowed never to go back. The life was so restricted he found it intolerable. Everyone in uniform, set meal times and menu, set exercise periods, set leisure time - pool, TV on four channels, library trolley.

Go back to that and do away with all the present day trimmings and re-offending stats would drop.

However, those in prison do need a carrot as well as the stick. Offer those who want it worthwhile, key-word 'worthwhile', training. Let them at least have a chance of getting gainful employment when they come out.

[Suff]

However, those in prison do need a carrot as well as the stick. Offer those who want it worthwhile, key-word 'worthwhile', training. Let them at least have a chance of getting gainful employment when they come out.

The carrot is there for those who want it. One of my sons qualified himself in several computing disciplines and managed to get himself a job within months of getting out, has a good career and is never going anywhere near prison again.

So the will has to be there and you are exactly right WM, the way to drive that will is to reduce the "entertainment" opportunities to the point where future study becomes appealing.

Interestingly when Mrs S asked #3 son if he had made any friends in Prison he replied "Of course not they're all Criminals"... Granted he was a convicted criminal too, but his would, in decades past, have come under crime of passion. What he was referring to was the attitude. Namely that breaking the law was their life and ending up in prison was a price that had to be paid as a cost of "doing business". That, I believe, is the thing that has to be broken.

On this whole "human rights" thing, I've always considered it total BS. Strip someone naked, stick them in the jungle and get them to tell you about their inalienable "human rights". Of course there are no such thing. We grouped together in societies to feed and protect ourselves. The move from hunter gathering to farming made it possible. If we are to live together in society, then we have to give something up and for that we get the benefits and protections of that society. What we had to give up was total freedom to do exactly as we wish. We have to conform to the rules, the "norm".

So when someone goes to Prison, to me, they lose the benefits of society (those so called Human Rights). Of course that does not mean we do not treat them other than with common decency, but they do not retain the rights to which we all have because they have not given up their freedom de exactly as they wish.

That's my take. But because of this BS view that every human is born with some kind of divine right to life, leisure and comfort, we are in the situation we are.