OK, I’m Convinced, Jail Doesn’t Work After All…

…let’s try birching instead:

The York student jailed for violence during the London protest against spending cuts is today back home after being released early on curfew.

Frank Fernie was released from jail in Cambridgeshire yesterday, three months into his 12-month sentence.

*sigh*

Has he at least learned his lesson?

He said: “It’s absolutely brilliant to be back in York; I’m absolutely chuffed. I think I have spent quite long enough in jail and I just want to spend some time with my family and friends now.”

Grrrrr…

The former Archbishop Holgate’s CE School and York College pupil, described in court as an “exceptionally promising” student, added yesterday: “From the outset I thought the sentence was quite unfair considering my background – I have never had any previous convictions and I have worked for voluntary organisations. I thought it was a bit harsh.

“Everyone makes mistakes. Prison really wasn’t the place for me – there really wasn’t any need for that.”

There really wasn’t any need for you to throw stuff at the police was there, but hey, s**t happens, right?

Of course, there are plenty of people only too happy to confirm and support this little cretin’s over-high opinion of himself, and it’s not just his family:

Kathryn Smith, one of those who campaigned as part of the Free Frank Fernie campaign, said: “The campaigners are delighted. It is testament to Frank’s good character, which everybody has spoken about, that he has been released early.

“We continue campaigning now. He has been released on tag to serve the rest of his sentence at home. What the campaign is looking for is for somebody to look again at his sentence and say that it was not fair in the first place.

“I still think, ultimately, he has this on his record and that does not seem right for a moment’s hot-headedness. It if was done in town on a Saturday night, it would be a rap on the knuckles. We still view this as a political sentence and want it expunged from his record.”

Yes, he almost certainly would have escaped even this minimal punishment if it’d been an ‘ordinary’ night out on the town, but a) that means there’s something wrong with those sentences, not this one and b) there’s an element of ‘example-making’ that quite rightly applies to rioting, and the courts have agreed that this is rightly so.

So I really hope that you are going to be disappointed.