Vocal Voices

Following the recent troubles in prisons Nick Clegg, Ken Clarke and Jacqui Smith say that jails have become unacceptably dangerous. Their solution to this problem is to cut the prison population by half, to 45,000.

It cannot be done overnight, obviously, but how will the plan work in practice?

It will need a whole new way of treating people who break the law. It will require new definitions for crimes where the perpetrator has to be incarcerated. It wil require new types of prisons, punishment and rehabilitation.

When I hear of some punishments handed out I often think "Why is s/he going to prison for that?" or "How can that crime attract such a lenient sentence?", the whole system seems to be in such a mess.

I think that there does need to be change, but it is not as simple as just halving the prison population. It will need root and branch change and also a rethink about who we send to prison, why and what for.

My take on it is prison for violent crime and some other kinds of punishment/rehabilitation for non-violent crime. The prisons are full of drug offenders, and people who haven't paid fines etc. who are no threat to anyone, except maybe themselves.....

We really do NOT want to go down the US route, where 1% of the population is in prison!

You could make a start by stopping incarcerating historic sex offenders, including the 101 yo man jailed in Birmingham this week ...... but I bet that notion would go down rather badly in some quarters ...

The statistics make interesting reading.

About 50% of all prisoners are in for violent crimes, sexual offences and robbery. Another 30% are in for theft or drugs offences and the remainder for things like criminal damage, fraud, public order or possession of weapons offences.

I do not suppose that much can be done about the 50% groups, but there must be alternatives for dealing with the drugs, theft and all the other groups.

Transportation to Tristan Da Cunha?

Ossie IMO sex offenders are violent, and deserve whatever they get, historically or not.

Kaz, you are right about that, and their numbers would not even make a dent in the problem. Some crimes are unforgivable no matter how long ago they took place.

Yet there are 'soft' crimes where the old Victorian ethos of punishment for punishment's sake is still with us. We have to move on if we are to reduce the prison population. Other places have done it.

Crommers, T da C looks like heaven. Population of less than 300, no crime, decent climate, if a bit rainy. I'd move from this *hit hole in a flash, but they are keen to keep their lifestyle as it is.

Well!How selfish are they, eh?