In a damning report, Nick Hardwick, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, said the treatment of many offenders at Wandsworth jail was "demeaning, unsafe and fell below what could be classed as decent".God forbid they should feel ‘demeaned’! Why, anyone would think being a criminal was something to be ashamed of!
The report also found that some prisoners were out of their cells for just two hours a day.Oh, noes! That’s probably longer than some people dare spend out of their homes on crime-ridden estates, mind you…
There also appeared to be little attempt to resolve underlying reasons for the behaviour of prisoners who were transferred to the segregation unit, they said.Oh, the humanity!
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "Prisoners are being detained in revolting conditions. Such abuse hampers safe return to the community and puts victims at risk."Just checking, Frances, but who exactly do you mean by victims’..?
I’ve a horrible feeling you don’t mean the people these thugs will be robbing and stabbing on release. In fact, I wouldn’t be too surprised to find you think of the thugs as ‘victims’…
I've often been of the opinion that if you make a prison a place where no-one in their right mind would want to go back into then it might just solve the problem of re-offending. Not saying torture or anything like that, just a harsh regime (or what they used to call hard labour) with the last third of the sentence being lighter labour + rehabilitation. Frances Crook and I probably wouldn't see eye to eye on this, but I'd bet my method would produce better results than his.
ReplyDelete"I’ve a horrible feeling you don’t mean the people these thugs will be robbing and stabbing on release."
ReplyDeleteThese debtors, contempt of court inmates and the like are all thugs?
@ Quiet man
ReplyDeleteIMHO prisons should never be "demeaning, unsafe or fall below what could be classed as decent". All such Institutions should be financially self sufficient; generating 100% funding through commercial enterprise. After all, it is for such a world that we trust they will be rehabiltated upon release.
Prisoners would be entitled to a small share in the proceeds, less appropriate weekly deductions for board and victim compensation.
Factories within prisons should therefore be standard. Where security permits, labour could be supplied for remote civil undertakings. Additional remission could be earned for work in special environments, where for example, reclamation of contaminated/polluted land involved working with hazardous materials/agents.
In the course of such useful employment, prisoners can be taught normal social skills, acquire reasonable manners and a introduced to the sense of a personal moral code. They should emerge from sentences with a new aptitude for legitimate work and the basic skills to find it.
Only the vindictive would want a prisoner's life to be demeaning, cruel and soul destroying. Such deliberation can only inflict further losses upon society. Yet of equal importance is the premise that the costs of imprisonment and rehabilitation should not be borne by honest taxpayers.
Only a small proportion of those going into prison are thugs.
ReplyDeleteBut a higher proportion will leave prison as thugs.
Prison turns a lot of losers into thugs. It's what they have to learn to survive in that regime, and it serves them well on release into the soft outside world.
We will disagree about how to reform prisons, but most will agree it needs doing?
Let's be honest, a lot of the time, sending 'thugs' to prison is a waste of time. Leg Iron suggests bringing back the stocks but personally I think public floggings are the single most effective punishment....and by 'flogging' I don't mean cat-o-nine-tails stuff, but birchings.
ReplyDeletePublically birch each 'rioter' at the scene of the crime. Hard to be a 'gansta' with snot and tears running down your face.
@ MTG or we could just execute repeat offenders and save ourselves the bother.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way that the prison system can be self supporting in the manner you prescribe simply because of the extra security involved in keeping an eye on the prisoners whilst working on outside sites. No one would be willing to pay the charges and the cost of keeping a prisoner would balloon far higher than it is now, well above what we pay to our pensioners.
So, why should we spend more on prisoners than we do pensioners?
@ Quiet Man
ReplyDeleteMotivation is the key. If you were a prisoner, would youo work with others and obey work rules to earn money and bonuses, or sit in solitary and make nothing?
And the one thing which all great and successful endeavours share, is an abundance of critics who said it wouldn't work.
@ SBC ..
ReplyDeleteI totally agree mate ..
Have a squint at this (NOT for the weak of constitution) ..
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c9_1304013159
@ Capt
ReplyDeleteI watched with the sound off as not to upset The Bestes Frau In The World who-for a member of the Master Race- is a delicate little flower.
But even with the sound off I could tell he was a snivelling snotty wreck by the end of it.
Wouldn't contend it will stop him DUI'ing in future but it'll sure as hell make him think.
@ SBC ..
ReplyDeleteYep .. I reckon that will have spoiled his next few months .. ;)
"I've often been of the opinion that if you make a prison a place where no-one in their right mind would want to go back into then it might just solve the problem of re-offending."
ReplyDeleteNot entirely, though, as there's always the ones who just don't believe they'd be caught.
"These debtors, contempt of court inmates and the like are all thugs?"
No, prison should indeed be reserved for violent offences and incorrigibles; the others should do proper community service to pay back their crime.
"... of equal importance is the premise that the costs of imprisonment and rehabilitation should not be borne by honest taxpayers."
Agreed.