Crime and Punishment

Something that generally comes up around about election times, although it periodicaly becomes the centre of media attention whenever some particularly horrific crime grabs the headlines, and it is usually with attempts by rival politicians trying to out do one another in their attempts to come across as tougher on crime than the other. There is very rarely any reasonable debate, if you suggest punishments that don't involve prison sentences or less draconian punitive measures you are labelled as soft on crime and you "may as well be out mugging grandmothers yourself with that kind of attitude."

The thing is that we have prison numbers that have reached 77,000, that's a 25,000 increase over the last 10 years in England and Wales to give that figure some perspective. More than half these prisons are overcrowded and in 2004 there were 95 suicides with 10 out of the 20 prisons with the highest rates of suicide also in the top 20 for population turnover.

I suppose you take the view that people are in prison as a punishment. Some are also there for the protection of the public. Where people tend to start disagreeing is over exactly who needs to be there and of those that are how much of a role rehabilitation should take. Living conditions of prisoners can also be known to cause controversy, i've saw many a headline about how outrageous it is that prisoners have access to playstations and DVD's etc. Although the day when these fuckers get plasma screens in their cells is the day i start asking questions about how many luxuries they are getting as well!

Of course a prison sentence is a punishment, it is a denial of certain freedoms and liberties, even if the prison isn't a dungeon nightmare the prisoner is still denied personal freedom. However if we have an increasing prison population then surely there is a better way to deal with it than building more prisons? For one thing the average cost of to keep a person in prison is currently £37,305 per year. Also if our prisons are overcrowded then you can give up on any idea of rehabilitation.

So surely it's time we looked at ways of keeping people out of prison, better for all concerned if the only people that we lock up are those that are genuinely dangerous to the public. For one thing prison isn't the only form of punishment. I'm not so sure about the benefits of tagging but i don't see why more community service can't be dished out. If people are harming their communities with petty crime etc then get them working in the community and putting something back.

Locking people up should surely only be for keeping away people that are dangerous to others. What is the point of locking up a petty thief, chances are it won't deal with the underlying problems of why they are a thieving git? Drug offences, i'd be tempted to decriminalise all prohibited substances, it's a personal choice as far as i'm concerned what people choose to ingest into their system. It does seem a touch hypocritical that we legally sell cigarettes which we know kills people yet we frown upon other substances.

I wouldn't encourage drug use, i'd be for educating people as to the true nature of the potential consequences and let them make their own decisions. People argue that the state needs to protect some people from themselves, certainly some people are more vulnerable than others and that needs to be taken into consideration but the vast majority of the population should be considered as able to make these decisions for themselves.

Anyway, the point i'm making and the point made by the new Chief Inspectors of prisons in article i read is that politcians need to take the subject more seriously and lay off the hardline rhetoric as it helps no one. Sensible debate and discussion might get us somewhere, politicians trying to score points gets us no where at all!