Prison is essential for criminals who threaten our safety. Terrorists, murderers and all who attack people violently should be given custodial sentences to protect the rest of us from their attacks. They should serve more than 40% of the sentence before discharge. There should be no early discharge for anyone who might revert to violence on leaving prison.
It is more debatable what to do with offenders who steal. If someone fails to pay the BBC licence fee it should not be a criminal offence. It should be treated as an unpaid invoice. There should be legal redress for the BBC to demand payment, and to send in bailiffs if all else fails.
If a thief stole my car I would like him to have to buy me a replacement. I have no wish to have to pay for him to stay in prison if he could stay in work and pay compensation out of his wages. Punishments need to fit the crime. If he cannot work and pay then a stay in prison to put him through training to make a more useful contribution to society would be a good idea.
Prison has three purposes. It is used to protect the rest of us from those who would harm us. It is a deterrent to people contemplating a crime, though only if the clear up rate of such crime is suitably high.It is a means of trying to help people change their lives for the better when they come out. It has proved bad at this last.
Prisons need to be drugs free, with a disciplined environment. Overcrowded prisons in old buildings struggle to be effective.Parliament is too ready to create new and additional criminal offences. Most people want the law enforcement system to concentrate on violent offenders, and tackling the big scam gangs who are milking the benefit system, robbing on line commerce and banking and bringing in thousands of illegal migrants.
July 13, 2024
As ever âŠtoo many people.
How can any system, health, education, penal actually work in an overcrowded, non homogeneous âsocietyâ?
Do we really want to live in a country full of Super Max prisons ( or whatever typically stupid name they have been given) ?
Our safety goose has been well and truly cooked by the lies of those who made promises, took us to war , turned our world inside out, upside down again and again.
How can those things be done to people and a safe and happy society be the outcome?
July 13, 2024
It will be interesting to see the demographics of who are released. I bet it won’t be the ones avoiding the TV tax or other minor infringements.
I bet there will be a disproportionate amount of the peaceful sect backon our streets creating mayhem.
July 13, 2024
I think there is already a fuss about a âgrooming gangâ leader being released.
The guy who posted certain stickers will, as you say, still languish.
Would they now claim that we all stand equal before the law?
That it has not become politicised?
July 13, 2024
Westminister has decriminalised drug and shop lifting offences except in extreme cases. So a free for all is being proposed!
No deportations for foreign criminals, that could free up a few places.
Letting them out achieves nothing because they have to go somewhere and be supervised! Next Labour will be saying they need to build more hostels near peopleâs homes! Perhaps Bibby barges could be used for low level non BBC licence fee offenders? Or will they be put up in four star hotels like the criminals from France!
What a dangerous society the Uni Party is creating, allowing potential terrorists in, murders and rapists out, perhaps some want stay inside prison because life with sex, drugs with prison wardens is better and cheaper than fending for yourself?
How about bringing back capital punishment for murders that could save a few spaces and provide a punishment fit for crime? Same for those who murder and get off by going to hospital instead? How about a proper austere sentence in stark bare cells instead of the current accommodation with TVs, computers, four square meals, no bills, activity classes, gyms fir keep fit, etc etc.
July 13, 2024
Everhopeful :
Agreed.
July 13, 2024
What on earth is wrong with old buildings?
That same game was played with education and mental and physical health care.
All with dire results.
ie the net result in all cases being grossly reduced provision.
And lack of mental health facilities plays into the prison situation.
What a good idea to deracinate the world and then for the powers that be to expect increased laws to be obeyed and to live a safe and secure life.
What they actually want is to control all of us, never mind criminals, to within an inch of our miserable lives.
July 13, 2024
E,
â What they actually want is to control all of us, never mind criminals..â
Agreed. I think this will occur where incompetence by governments allows outsiders to offer solutions like ID cards etc. I donât believe it is a cleverly crafted conspiracy – more a question of opportunism.
Once there is a Chinese style system of removal of âsocial creditsâ for those who are considered to have offended then we reach a new peak of technological serfdom.
July 13, 2024
Agree 100%
Those who seek to control us may have suffered a bit of a set back.
Apparently loads of credit cards/banks ( or is it the terminals in shops?)have crashed and payments canât be made. And nobody can figure out why. If this is all true then Haha!đ
It was reported that some supermarkets have resorted to âcash onlyâ signs.
They wonât be best pleased since they are all locked in a struggle for the biggest share of the marketâŠthe smaller shops having been extinguished ( how convenient) by the plague.
July 13, 2024
My small shops doing very well. In fact Iâm looking forward to the high street being vacated by the Corporations. We need more local, family run businesses.
July 13, 2024
So all is well then?
July 13, 2024
You suggest what prison should be and most people would agree with you. You shy away from what in reality it is, the appauling clear up rate of crime, the failure of the police to engage in detecting it, and a clogged up legal system that fails to get the accused through the court system.
If government wished to unclog prisons there are reputedly 10,000 plus prisoners of foreign origin. Most of these should have been deported to their countries of origen after a token stay in one of our prisons. I would add, without the right to legal aid.
The police can do their job, witness the recent horrendous cross bow murders. However there are not enough of them to give the on street visibility to prevent low end crime. I would also question the quality of most of their senior leadership. If low end crime is dealt with it discourages progression of a career in crime.
Only politicians know why this state of affairs has been allowed to become a problem. If my solutions are ignored then then find better ways to reduce prison numbers or build more prisons.
July 13, 2024
Prisons are not a deterrent! Look at how many are having sex with wardens! Four square meals and everything provided on tap without any costs. How many serious offenders reoffend?
The Equality Act did not apply to civil servants (who were recognised as crown servants), prisons, police and military. There were good reasons for this. Unfortunately this was changed by Blaire and his tribute party for the last 14 years. Hence why this week it was reported army spend ÂŁ3.4 million on equality rot!
It used to be that there was a genuine occupation qualification where same sex would supervise those in a state of undress ie shower or toilet. Prison cells have toilets, therefore the same sex should peep through the door in case the prisoner is using the toilet and not hurting themself. Then came along all the equality rot! How many female prison wardens have been prosecuted over the last year for having sex with male prisoners? That would save a few places! Women should not supervise men and vice versa. Women should not serve on submarines unless all women crews. Basic problems were inevitable and all services were sacrificed at the alter of the Blaire/Harman Equality Act. Change it or scrap it. It is harming all aspects of our society. Now we have the bending over backwards for trans rot in addition!
July 13, 2024
An arbitrary further 20% reduction in time served from circa 50% of the sentence to 40% is not the way to do it. One should look at each case individually. I would for example not have sent the female teacher recently sentenced to 6.5 years to jail at all a suspended sentence was more than sufficient. But already they are releasing hundreds of violent people who reoffend. Many even reoffend when released for weekends.
Certain types of people who committed certain offences and far more likely to reoffend. Not easy to get into jail with committing very serious offences and that is only they ones they catch then doing and do prosecute. The vast majority are not even caught.
The overall âprovenâ prisoner reoffending rate is about 25% but there can often be 100+ crimes for everyone taken to court and proven.
The BBC tax/licence fee to fund BBC evil net zero, big government, vaccine and woke propaganda is the real crime so scrap this. Another Tory failure!
July 13, 2024
Congratulations to the sensible No-Vac Djokovic in reaching the final. At least the crowd are not praising net harm vaccine people as they were 3 years back. Though the real blame lies with the appalling and compromised UK regulators and Gov. âexpertsâ even coercing them into young people & children and people who had had Covid already. I know directly 4 people given heart arrhythmias and worse post Covid vaccines. I do not know all that many people so this is a very high % indeed. .
July 13, 2024
+1 LL
In our circle I know of people who ‘died suddenly’, others had strokes and yet others developed fast growing and aggressive cancers. Be encouraged, States in the US are now taking Pfizer to court.
July 13, 2024
Lifelogic
I know 3 people. They all had the jab but also still caught covid, and it was only after being treated for Covid that the damage was found, so cause or effect .?
July 13, 2024
6.5 years for having âconsensualâ though not âlegally consensualâ sex with a 15 year old boy that is.
July 13, 2024
LL,
Consider forced marriages, consider the huge amount of incest cases and as a consequence huge amounts of disabled children in certain ethnic communities. Some children, disturbing as it is, do not realise it is wrong for a male relative to have sex with them! Others under age forced into sex work. Wise up!
There are court cases for you to consider which resulted in Gillick responsibility etc. Look up statute laws protecting children, the laws were made with good reason. This might help you might understand the rot you are spouting.
July 13, 2024
What has this got to do with a female teacher having âconsensualâ sex with a probably rather stronger 15 year old boy. I am not encouraging such activity but a suspended sentence is more than sufficient.
July 14, 2024
LL,
You are. She had sex with two boys not one. Pattern of behaviour. She was in a position of trust to look after the children in her care not groom them by buying gifts ie designer belt and having sex with them! They are young and vulnerable even at fifteen. Wake up.
Earl Spencer in papers recently regarding female staff member at his boarding school sexually abusing him as a child which causes him trauma today. Under your blogs that is fine as well!
July 13, 2024
Labour has âslashed and burntâ from Day One.
And the country has given the tories a âbloody noseâ at huge expense to itself.
Delivered a dictatorship to Labour.
Was that the purpose of Reform? ( populist revolution indeedâŠand why did anyone pretend to be surprised by Le Pen? (The second round in France always knocks out the threat to the establishment)
Europe in general and this country in particular will never recover from this onslaught.
July 13, 2024
Conditions observed long ago by the French radical deputy,Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, in a 1794 speech proposing the ‘Decrees of Ventose'(-the expropriation of the resources of the Establishment) which has contemporary relevance:
“The force of events may be leading us to conclusions we never imagined.Wealth is in the hands of many of the Revolution’s enemies.Necessity compels working people to depend on those enemies.Do you think authority can survive if civil relationships depend ultimately on those who are hostile to its form of government?
Those who make revolution by halves do but dig their own graves.Are the people shedding their blood on the frontiers,does every family wear mourning for its sons in order to make things comfortable for tyrants?You must recognize the principle that in our country,no-one has any rights who did not help to set it free………The way to strengthen the Revolution is by making it profitable to its supporters and ruinous to its opponents.”
(He was guillotined)
July 13, 2024
No need to let prisoners out early if we had enough prisons.
After many decades of running our legal system we should know what percentage of the population are likely to commit crime. Thus if the population grows by 25% then so do the suggested offences, so that number of prison places should be calculated as needed, just to stand still.
The complication is the law enforcement clear up rate, currently running I believe at something like 5%, and whilst not all offences require a prison term, many will require some form of supervision, thus if the clear up rate increases, so should the provision for prison places and supervision.
It is not rocket science to realise that an increase in population, is likely to need an increase in prison spaces !
July 13, 2024
âIt is more debatable what to do with offenders who steal.â
Well in most cases the police do not nothing as usual. For shoplifting the police do not even turn up. They even announce this policy so as to encourage ever more shop lifting, which it certainly does very efficiently.
July 13, 2024
â It is more debatable what to do with offenders who steal.â
Is it? Is that why people can now help themselves to the goods in supermarkets with no fear of police intervention or punishment?
This is a different issue to nonpayment of TV licences.
Reply In reality we do not send most thieves to prison. Shouldn’t thieves face bigger financial penalties to compensate victims.
July 13, 2024
Reply to reply,
What is the cost of enforcing repayment on the thief? Do they say, ‘it’s a fair cop guv., I’ll get a job and pay my debts’? Nice idea, rubbish in practice.
July 13, 2024
Generally very true. Also before they get sent to prison they usually have to have to be caught for several serious thefts offences. Also as less than 1% are ever caught and prosecuted they might will have committed 500-1000+ thefts before they even get into to prison. Knowing the odds of being caught are so low many will just start their thieving again when released perhaps taking more care not to be caught.
July 13, 2024
Reply – Reply
We do not need to send thieves to prison, I guess it depends on what they steal, the Great Train Robbers and others since have been given Maximum jail time, Shoplifters are allowed ÂŁ200 worth without even prosecution.
If you believe getting away with small crime leads to larger offences then they have to be deterred some how.
Some thieves steal for need, due to lack of a job, money and support, others plan their trade in a methodical manner, simply to enrich their lives at the expense of others.
If you wish to deter crime then you need a punishment of some sort, and in many cases properly supervised rehabilitation/education.
Many who steal or cause damage to buildings/property, have no funds to pay compensation to the victim, so they are asked to write a letter to the victims to explain their actions. Yes its true, I got one myself from the clown who put graffiti on my fence, but why not make him clean it off, instead of giving him an excuse for his actions.
Reply Shoplifters should face a financial penalty as well as surrendering the stolen goods
July 13, 2024
Reply to reply,
My best guess is that those doing the shoplifting do not have assets so financial penalties are a none starter. I would suggest that they are the drones working for gangmasters. So go after the organisation, and the prerequisite is good intelligence. I would put the drones in chain gangs, cleaning our streets and repairing pot holes etc. The State should not board and feed them at great expense for months or years. They should be made to physically work for the society they have abused.
July 13, 2024
You could garnish their benefits, but of course that would likely promote more theft. In some Middle Eastern countries they still amputate the thieving hand. Transportation and even hanging were used in historic times in the UK. Perhaps a spell in stocks worked, as the public got an opportunity to learn to recognise the thief, aside from the opportunity to throw waste at them. The Soviets used to put up large posters of petty criminals for e.g. not paying the 3 kopeck tram fare or stealing a 22 kopeck loaf.
July 13, 2024
Alan:
Agreed, and another thing. Shoplifters often threaten and terrorise Staff, who are sometimes working alone, especially at night. People may be thinking twice about taking a job in retail.
There should be an additional sentence for that, as well.
July 13, 2024
Reply to reply.
And where will these thieves get the money to pay this penalty? From their benefits?
Reply A lot of thieves have jobs or other money. The aim would be to get more off benefits into work.
July 13, 2024
A lot of us have given up trying to get money out of non-payers. A friend just evicted a non-payer – she could not recover funds because these people know that the cost of lawyers is extortionate and so they are immune. They are also incredibly aggressive, saying anything they like on social media or in public, because they are immune from Lible/slander laws, because they have no money and the Courts, as Norris McWhirter used to say, are just like the Ritz Hotel, open to everyone.
A Law Lord once told me âthe law is not for people like youâ. He advised me to just take the hit because I did not have the money to âplay the gameâ.
Our institutions are so biased in favour of âthe underdogâ that we canât get justice, even in small cases, and even if we do – we canât get the money 99% of the time.
July 14, 2024
Lynne,
Spot on. Excellent comment.
July 13, 2024
Good morning.
It is said that a large part of crime in this country is caused by a minority of people. If so, then we need to consider the ‘Three Strike Rule’.
For non-violent but persistent offenders it would remove a lot of these criminals from the streets and save more time and money in the long run. I say this as we have to consider not only the loss due to crime but its overall effects. Effects on the victims, both short and long term, and the effects on the State ie Money, time and resources.
I do not believe that locking people up for not paying council tax or the BBC license tax a proper means of State resources and, the loss is to organisations that would not suffer such loss if they themselves were reformed. ie Remove the criminality aspect of non-payment.
Prison should not only be a means of deterrent but a serious and effective means of removing those in society who will not obey the law.
July 13, 2024
Indeed.
“It is said that a large part of crime in this country is caused by a minority of people”
This is certainly true, many a career professionals to get into prison for theft you really have to try very hard – you might have committed 1000+ thefts and only been caught on say 10 before you get a prison sentence.
July 13, 2024
If it costs ÂŁ50,000 to keep someone in prison for a year, as we are told, then it is a very expensive way of punishing people who donât pay their bills. Community service, unpaid work in the community, would be much better.
We are told that 12% of prisoners are foreign nationals. Of these, 12% are Albanians, followed by Poles and Romanians. 6% are Irish and 4% Jamaican. We should send these people back to their country of origin, with no prospect of readmission to the UK. This could be done immediately, I would have thought.
I see prison as âcruel and inhuman punishmentâ – witness the number of suicides in prison! I think that physical punishments are kinder, because once administered, it is over – and the person has no wish to reoffend. For others, prison is a roof and a meal ticket, so being locked up is not a punishment for them. Rather, it is a place of security, and they become institutionalised.
We should bring back capital punishment for murder, too. It is the most effective way of preventing the offender doing it again. I favour a firing squad over hanging or lethal injection.
July 13, 2024
The trouble with capital punishment is that our legal system is not justâŠand never has been.
Nor is it infallible.
Do the so called law-abiding really have the right to take a life?
Is State retribution and example-making ( born of its own fear and failure) really such a good thing?
In any case, capital punishment has never been proven to be a good deterrent.
Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb!
And then, with burgeoning state murder, the mood turns ugly and the oh so wise state becomes nervous ( lessons from 1789) and slashes the penalties.
July 13, 2024
Abigail, unpaid work in the Community.
Yes that may be ok if properly supervised, but it is not, many cannot be bothered to even turn up to complete such work, the supervisors are not allowed to file a poor report as it may reflect on the offenders character and damage future opportunities, How do I know, a close friend of ours was a community officer for many years until he gave up out of sheer frustration, with the system not allowing anything other than a positive report on those taking part.
Political correctness gone mad.
Unfortunately it appears there is a lack of honesty in the whole system, probably to cover up its many failings.
July 13, 2024
I agree someone who has committed rape or murder deserves to die. The problem comes when you factor in the legal system. Do you trust it to deliver a just verdict?
Remember Andrew Malkinson and the Postmaster scandal.
July 13, 2024
Failure to spend money on prisons is the reason for failing to incarcerate offenders for a suitable period.
The Americans are much better at locking people up. Though this is now under threat in states where soft Democrats are in charge.
Prisons should be unpleasant places especially for hardened criminals and recidivists.
Capital punishment would also reduce the cost of prison.
July 13, 2024
Prison is an unpleasant place. Only it’s not the authorities serving the punishment, but other prisoners.
July 13, 2024
If someone stole my car I would like him to buy me a replacement AND receive a suitable punishment.
This could be a stay in prison or a hefty fine or both. Depends whether it is a repeat offender.
Prison sentences used to have an element of vengeance to them. This has now disappeared. The benefits of vengeance are hugely underestimated.
July 13, 2024
Sir John,
I suppose the simple, obvious answer is to build more prisons!
Is there any reason why some of that building work could not be done by the prison population? Broadmoor Hospital was built by prisoners in 1863 to house prisoners that were criminally insane.
We could also kill two birds with one stone:prison places would increase and training would help offenders to learn a trade.
July 13, 2024
Indeed. Then again letting these people loose on a building site with building machinery will carry some rather serious safely risks for many of them and their prison officers and foremen.
July 13, 2024
15% of the UK population on anti-depressants in the UK – really? Have our doctors gone totally mad, are they all bribed by Big Pharma, or is it the people themselves who have been driven mad and neurotic?
Or is it just the easiest way to get them out of the GPâs surgery very quickly? Here take this and get lost!
July 13, 2024
In the 1960s drug reps began showering GPs with lovely âfreeâ gifts.
Mugs, glasses, decanters, calendars and strange, huge plastic callipers for measuring body fat ( âslimmingâ tab rep).
As you sayâŠI wonder whatâs on offer now!
July 13, 2024
Just deport the many thousands of foreign prisoners in our prisons and stop new ones coming in.
Turn the boats around, as the Con government should have done but never did and Labour never will!
July 13, 2024
Agreed 100%. The deportation process should start the day they are found guilty so that it’s ready for when they are released with no appeals pending. Better still send them back to complete their sentence in their home country.
July 13, 2024
A sound plan
July 13, 2024
In 2022 Buckinghamshire Council rejected plans for a new prison complex off the A 41 for reasons that included the impact on bats and black-hairstreak butterflies. The impact of burglars, muggers and rapists on Buckinghamshire people and others presumably wasn’t felt to be so much of an issue by the Conservative council’s planning committee. Did no-one tell them their party in government was letting in millions of newcomers, a fair number of whom would statistically be likely to receive prison sentences? It seems NIMBYs don’t just oppose new housing.
July 13, 2024
Indeed
July 13, 2024
Another failure by the party of law and order. Massive under investment in prisons and courts and allowing the police to investigate nothing more than âhaving oneâs pride hurtâ from on line comments.
Equally virtue signalling by refusing to âlegaliseâ drugs, how many petty criminals are committing crime to get their next fix? Drug barons, county lines, drug turf wars etc. drugs are available everywhere including jails so the policy is patently not working and politicians too weak to challenge it.
Prescribe Heroin/Crack to addicts who commit the vast low level crime taking them and their dealers off the streets. Then hammer and harry the easy to spot street dealers of social drugs, Charlie and Hash etc, our councils are obsessed with harrying anyone that drops even a bus ticket. Refocus on cleaning up our streets from something far more corrosive.
Will it happen? Of course not.
July 13, 2024
Prevent non-violent convicts from going to prison.
Sentence them to wear a conspicuous Offender Uniform in public with a flashing helmet.
The Uniform alerts everyone serving their time that all others will see them as visible risk wherever they go.
Offenders will rapidly learn to act lawfully and what it takes to gain trust.
Those who appear in public without their uniform: Go to Jail ! ⊠Serve your full sentence there!
Result:
Crime prevention in action.
Most prisons not needed.
Shame about offenders, big saving for government instead.
Offenders rehabilitated by practical daily reminders of how to be a good citizen in public.
.
July 13, 2024
A Great Idea, Bloke, to that I would add the abilty to shorten the sentence by good behaviour and charitable work, that would teach them to mix socially !
July 13, 2024
‘Sentence them to wear a conspicuous Offender Uniform in public with a flashing helmet.’
I’ve just spat my coffee all over my desk. I genuinely cannot stop laughing. That was the idea of the week. Brilliant.
Put the ‘Bloke’ in charge with the slogan ‘Sensible policies in a dangerous world’
July 13, 2024
Dom
Have actually seen prisoners at work in America when driving down to the Florida Keys a few years ago.
They were cleaning up the main road central meridian (central reservation) Police car parked at the start with an officer on the roof with a shot gun, another similar situation with an officer at the end, prisoners all in striped uniforms, thought it was only in the movies, but no advised at a coffee shop break it is perfectly normal operation.
Seen as a moral booster for the population to see that crime does not pay, and those who are caught have to pay the penalty. Prisoners taking part seemed happy enough as it was probably better than being in a cell !
July 13, 2024
DOM,
It makes a pleasant change to hear that you can laugh.
Normally you seem to be either at a very low ebb, or suffering from very high blood pressure.
Life is not that bad really.
July 13, 2024
Peter
Mate, it’s what thirty years of living under Socialism does to you! It’s corrosive to the soul, the mind and the spirit.
Will try and be more a little more upbeat in the future as my uber pessimism can no doubt grate on the most tolerant of people
Off out with the dogs, to catch a criminal with a flashing helmet on his or indeed her bonce
July 13, 2024
Keep it up, Dom. You put into words what the rest of us can’t.
Early release will beget more crime and more criminals. As for rehabilitation of offenders ? Well stop importing uneducated people to do the simple work that they could be doing.
July 13, 2024
The idea has serious intent to work efficiently; not intended as a joke.
Flashing helmets may be OTT. However, wearing a distinctive offender uniform and doing constructive work in payback as Berkshire Alan describes, plus gaining remission for good behaviour or helping charity as MFD indicates, are better for all.
I envision the uniform as being one with a repetitive L-plate design: Indicative of LEARNING: To become law abiding and do good things, gradually earning trust and promotion to be free citizens again. Each would display a unique Learner ID.
Words like Ex-Thief, Burglar, Shoplifter, Drugs or other could reveal their risk type if helpful. Offender Learners could do safe work in Learner buildings / factories, even help build the buildings, increasingly earning money to pay back their debt to society. Being qualified for a job on the open market would then become smoother.
It is a simple, efficient method with its dynamics pulling the right way.
Any county could run a test to check its performance at minimal outlay.
July 13, 2024
I often think that parliament has too much time to pass laws, so they pass some of the most ill thought and stupid laws.
They need to spend more time fighting between the members as they should be made to repeal a law every six months and only new legislation on no more than a one for one basis.!
The climate change scam should never have seen the light of day. It is a liars charter!
July 13, 2024
They have plenty of laws but the Civil Service, Police, Courts have little interest in enforcing them. They quite keen on collecting fines for speeding, bus lanes, parking fines, TV licence fines, licences for almost anything in business… if there is money in it for them act if not and it cost money then do nothing if you possibly can get away with it. This is there general approach.
July 13, 2024
Releasing prisoners early. There are far more important things to worry about – such as âClimate crisis has impact on insectsâ colour and sex lives, study saysâ (The Guardian).
July 13, 2024
I can well believe that. For some years my wife has been saying âIâm too hot and botheredâŠâ I didnât realise climate change was the cause. Perhaps we could move to Iceland.
July 13, 2024
All very sensible. If any reoffending criminals are immigrants they should be returned to their country of origin, never to return. But of course no elected mainstream politicians are going to do that.
One problem is career criminals, who have no intention of getting a job and joining mainstream society. There’s little that deters them, and it’s extremely expensive to keep them incarcerated. Perhaps look at better tagging technology with 24/7 monitoring, hindering their criminality through long sentences of curfew, it would still be cheaper than incarceration.
July 13, 2024
” If any re-offending criminals are immigrants”
A huge proportion are as the government knows full well. That is why they try to hide the figures. See the figure recently published in Norway & Sweden.
If you government are hiding the stats. it indicates rather well what the stats. will say. On Vaccine harms, crimes by immigration status, on net zero, on immigration levels…
July 13, 2024
Over many decades the State has increasingly intervened in personal matters, making the family almost redundant.
As a result, whereas we used to police ourselves within the family, this ties and responsibilities have been undermined and eroded.
We must severely cut back on the welfare state as this is the root of much criminality since the State is a poor parent and lacks the resources to replace the family.
We should also â and this will not be easy â make the wider family financially responsible for their memberâs criminality when they do not have the resources to pay up.
And, yes, of course they should be charged with the cost of replacing stolen goods, and associated costs including police time, court costs and prison costs.
July 13, 2024
Not easy getting these type of people to pay – if you do force them to it will very likely come from the proceeds of yet more new crimes. Most low paid jobs rarely pay more than you need for rent, food, commuting costs and other bills.
July 13, 2024
“Prison works”
First deport any foreign nationals in prison to free up space. Then cram them in. It’s not supposed to be nice and if a few of them kill or maim each other then surely that is even more of a deterrent.
Anyone on a whole life tariff, will never get out so we don’t need to worry about rehabilitation or comfort, cram them all together.
Worry less about prisoners’ rights and more about protecting the public.
July 13, 2024
‘Crime doesn’t pay! ‘ was a popular saying. Nonsense. Our Police and justice system has made it a life/career choice for the unemployed, casual criminal, right through to ‘City massive ÂŁsums crime’
July 13, 2024
no one gets deported …..fact
July 13, 2024
Why not outsource the detention of serious criminals to Third World countries with prison space? Rwanda could be a candidate.
July 13, 2024
The Government is importing criminals, just like the last one did. Rather like the “housing crisis” the problem can’t be properly addressed, let alone solved, until they stop making it worse.
For a start, criminals should be identified by their nationality/ethnicity. That data should be used to “inform” the Home Office about which nationalities/ethnicities are most likely to commit certain types of crimes and that, in turn, should be used to restrict immigration from those places.
There is little point expecting most low-level criminals, who steal private property, to repay the value of their theft. I doubt if many would have the wherewithal to do so and they never will since they’re basically unemployable. However, those who go in for systematic and high-level theft, including fraud and stealing from the welfare state, should have all their property confiscated. They should be left in penury.
Jailing people for failing to pay the TV tax is an abomination. One the last Not-a-Conservative-Government should have dealt with by scrapping the telly tax.
July 13, 2024
Labour are following the Tory game-plan, early release prisons will be accommodated in 4*hotels …and any new prisoners in B&Bs
July 13, 2024
Oh THAT explains it all thenâŠ
The new Justice Minister is concerned about the possibility of looters overrunning the streets and setting fire to everything. All the fault of the Tory âguilty menâ you understand.
The solution, of course, is to release prisoners onto those same streets.
And then refill the prisons with the looters?
July 13, 2024
Sir John,
I am with you all the way of the role of prisons. Unfortunately for us and the prisoners the teach them a worthwhile trade part of rehabilitation into safe society is not focused on nearly enough.
July 13, 2024
Farage’s (and many Libertarians’) idea of ‘deindustrialising’ is allowing countries, such as India, to take over, from us, from our traditional heavy industries.
But being obsessed by heavy industry appears semi-Communist.
There are two types of industry: heavy and sophisticated.
Sophisticated industry are things like: Silicon Valley and the German Car Industry (things like Audi, Volkswagen, BMW etc).
Heavy industry is more and more only feasible in poorer countries with lower salaries and costs in general.
Sophisticated industry is what we want in the Western World and the UK. As it involves much higher skills, much better paid jobs, high quality brands with great services around this industry. And, also, FAR LESS POLLUTION!
I think Farage and the Libertarians, from one degree to another, just don’t get the importance of sophisticated industry to our economy. And that it requires hard planning and thought to achieve.
July 13, 2024
And that high pollution goes more with heavy industry.
And low pollution goes more with sophisticated industry.
It’s like they’ve got everything back to front. They want high pollution as they think this is a sign of making more money. But it’s actually the opposite. An economy based on high pollution is more likely to be focused on heavy industry – like in India ..
So people in the UK don’t want heavy industry anymore: 1) Not as highly paid 2) Higher pollution.
Does’t Farage and many Libertarians get this?
I don’t think so, because they don’t come from High-tech business backgrounds but rather see things more superficially from the POV of computer screens with share prices in the City of London type thing.
July 14, 2024
SOME people in the UK don’t want heavy industry any more. They tend to be the people who aren’t employed in it. Try asking the people of Port Talbot, whose jobs and town is about to be destroyed on the altar of Net Zero, if they would like the UK to retain some heavy industry.
Not everyone can or wants to be employed in financial services, $cience, the NHS, McJobs or the ever-expanding public sector.
July 13, 2024
It is only required that the Government simply backs out of its overbearing regulatory overkill and its interfering stifling of individual enterprise by meddlesome arrogance.
Let the markets decide, and let the entrepreneurs, the able and the imaginative of the nation get on with whatever they have to offer, whether it be small, medium, or large, neat, niche, light or heavy.
It was ever thus and it will continue to be so.
July 13, 2024
The whole justice system needs to be reformed. People are pleading guilty not because they are guilty but because they canât afford to defend themselves. Just look at the Post Office scandal. We have a crazy system whereby only the rich and the poor can get justice. We also have frivolous litigation by celebrities and ridiculous sentences influenced by the media. Just look at Alex Belfield who was given over 5 years in prison for online stalking with no chance of parole.
Things are set to get a lot worse with all the manufactured hate crime laws Labour will introduce. Maybe space in our jails is being freed up to house Brexit and Reform voters.
July 13, 2024
Crhristine
+1.
Have always said Justice if you can afford it in the UK
If found not guilty you do not get your legal fees back or paid for by the State, even if you have borrowed heavily against your house.
July 13, 2024
Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect ÂŁ200.
July 13, 2024
Off Topic, from the Telegraph – but amusing in that it conforms all the contradiction of the Uni-Party
“Labour may have claimed this Goverment will boast the most working-class Cabinet ever but its benches are awash with so-called nepo babies.
From the âRed Princessâ to ‘Theresa Mayâs’ cousin, The Telegraph has identified 11 new Labour parliamentarians with familial links to politics.
The fresh set of faces sworn into Parliament this week includes an impressive roster of qualifications and expertise – but many also belong to miniature political dynasties.”
July 13, 2024
Elsewhere – “Angela Rayner is preparing to overhaul green rules that prevent house building in the countryside as Labour presses ahead with a promise to âbulldozeâ the planning system.”
Honesty would help- that’s not about building ‘Homes’ but about Socialist Ideology, ‘green belt, the countries lungs are in Conservative areas, brownfield depleted areas are not
July 13, 2024
Prisons are meant to reform criminals, but they do an awful job of that – It may be a deterrent but the system certainly does not keep us safe.
Look at the USA with its massive justice system with by far the largest population of prison inmates, and yet crime is rife in most major cities. Prisons do not work but they do create a class of people have no faith in the system.
In a real system of rehabilitation the criminal would start off being locked up, but would gradually be awarded freedoms as he atoned for his crime. At some stage when he has fully recognized what his actions did and has accepted responsibility for his own actions he would be partially released. He would still have very limited freedoms and would continue to work to put right the harm caused.
A system that seems to work in the USA is called Criminon – it has had success in making decent people out of criminals by treating them as human, not scum.
July 13, 2024
PS — Releasing unreformed prisoners onto our streets will mean chaos and will create situations that exist in the USA where some cities are ruled by criminals who do just as they want without justice getting in the way.
July 13, 2024
We need a website or public forum that shows the name of the bureaucrat or civil servant, and their political affiliation, that directly authorises any prisoner (not ‘people’ as John inexplicably kindly labels them) released or any illegal immigrant given status to stay. This civil servant should them be held legally responsible for any crime committed by the illegal or criminal in their name and then warned about their conduct, punished financially or retrained.
Make state employees criminalyl responsible and accountable for their actions that may impact upon civilians.
July 13, 2024
If Sir John Redwood wants to get back into Parliament and become a Tory leader then it’s now easier than every to achieve (look at the competition now: Kemi and Suella now ‘hot faves’ to be next Tory leader …).
But he’s got to ditch his Libertarianism. It doesn’t work (NOT saying his political ideas in general don’t work – not saying that at all). And majority of Tory voters reject it. Instead focus on:
1) Helping to build up the High Tech Sector, if feasible in the Cambridge and then Oxford area – leading to higher quality and paid jobs not just in hardware but importantly the services around this hardware.
2) Helping to build up Leeds-Manchester-Shefflied area in particular in High Tech jobs and related.
3) Helping to rebuild the British car industry so we’re more able to make cares like the German brands.
All leading to real and substantial growth in economy and big drop in taxes.
Sure, be tough on immigration but that’s not enough. Need also to work closely with those in churches, media, education and arts to instil more Conservatively-cultural values in our native British people to make them much more productive and far less reliant on welfare.
All leading to significant drop in immigration (because far less need for it) as well as further big drop in taxes (as no longer have to support the growing burden of immigrants on the nation once they have settled here properly with their families etc).
This is neither Libertarian NOR One-Nation Conservatism but rather Conservatism focused on entrepreneurs and the high tech industry and restoring Conservative Cultural values in the nation.
And this would then keep the Tories in power for years too – and Labour out.
July 13, 2024
Hi sir John
Can I suggest letting prisoners out of jail and putting them into hotels with all the other criminals ILLEGALLY coming into the country
Or maybe they are getting full up as well?
Thank you
July 13, 2024
Incredible that after 14 years of Conservative govt people can still be sen to prison for non payment of the BBCâs poll tax. Obviously that should have been reformed – the BBC shouldnât be lording it over citizens extracting tithes any more than the post office should have been. One for the list if we ever get back in again.
July 13, 2024
@ Richard1 ” people can still be sen to prison for non payment of the BBCâs poll tax” – strictly not so, rather those who end up in prison do so for failing to pay the Court-imposed fines levied for evading the BBC tax.
July 13, 2024
‘Prison has three purposes.â[Protect us, deter them, reform them.]’
You miss one: retribution.âIt’s a human emotion and exists whether it’s frowned upon or not.âI outsource law enforcement to the state; this helped stop vendettas.âI need to feel the state has fittingly punished the criminal, else my respect for the state declines.âI may then take enforcement into my own hands which risks error on my part, harming the innocent, and then the state punishes me.
What’s the definition of prison overcrowding?âI assume it is more mild than it was forty years ago.
‘It has proved bad at [reform].’
Society lacks strong male role models at a local level, starting with the traditional father figure.âRather than let young men leave school at fourteen to gain that in the manual workplace, we insist they stick around, bored and disruptive, for years more.âCould a more stoic approach work better, filling a gap: teach self-reliance; that âlife is sufferingâ but it’s how you deal with it; have a Jordan Peterson channel on their TVs.â:-)
‘Prisons need to be drugs free’
It’s amazing that this needs stating.âDo regular drug tests take place for all prisoners, as if they were competing athletes?
July 13, 2024
Is it any surprise?
The former head of the Crown Prosecution Service & Director of Public Prosecutions – whose inner circle and overlord is âDavos Manâ: heâs about escaping the irritating plane of democratic decision-making in preference for the rarefied company of the 21st centuryâs self-styled philosopher-kings. Heâs about liberating himself from the constraints of democratic politics â especially the constraint of being answerable to the masses â in favour of chumming about with the better-educated, better-dressed better people of the World Economic Forum.
So in a nutshell the continuance of the Uni-Party in all its glory, we have just changed one of a chain of rubbish leaders for another. Then we all knew that is what was to happen, the WEF Socialism of the Uni-Party is trying to rule the UK without consent. 40% of the Countries electorate said ‘non-of-the-above’, just 20% of the electorate 1 in 5 voted for WEF rule, all because the previous WEF regime refused to manage, refused to serve those that elected them, they joined the UniParty and like the present incumbent took their orders form the unelectable unaccountable in foreign lands.
Today’s rational, the criminals, the insane, those that endanger the very structure of Society must be free, must continue to undermine common decency and freedoms. I would guess as with other criminals and illegals the taxpayer will be forced to elevate their living standards to 4 star hotels and more generous benefits at the expense of our impoverished pensioners
July 13, 2024
“An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.” ~ Sun Tzu
The Socialist doctrine of WEF has been thrown at us by Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Sunak and now Starmer there is no evidence to suggest that is not the direction they have chosen on the contrary everything they did was to confirm that as their aim. Our competitor nations have more freedom, more democracy. They are not held back by WEF styled Authoritarian Laws. Just think Mrs May, the Conservative Government banned the UK having a future, Starmer and his side kick Ed want to cement that further.
Other Nations are free can go forward and prosper, can have an economy and a future, but the UK by Law and other means brings us just more evil to wreck the structures and decency of society. Even on the surveillance of people movements the UK Authorities have the biggest database in the World, larger and more control than even China has.
July 13, 2024
Mr. Redwood – well said. I have never seen the point of sending thieves to prison. (A quick amputation is far cheaper and way more effective!) (Only joking!)
Would you agree that if I donât watch BBC output, I should not be compelled to buy a licence to watch live content from other providers.
Reply Yes I agree
July 13, 2024
Reply to reply. Do you know why, presumably, politicians in general support the status quo regarding the TV licence. One regularly hears âthe charter is up for reviewâ – but nothing ever changes – apart from, of course, the licence fee going up.
July 13, 2024
MW :
Because the BBC acts as the propaganda arm of the Net Zero, mass immigration (legal and illegal), let criminals out of prison supporting UniParty.
July 13, 2024
O.R. , ++++++ we saw that bias for the Uni-party very clearly during the election run up and during the reporting and, subsequently, the post election analyses. Why should the conservative party change or remove its apologist and ring-fencing protective arm?
July 13, 2024
Perhaps the government either wants to ensure the legal profession continues to have a sufficient supply of clients, which are clearly not available when they are locked up, or else is looking to provide empty places for the additional miscreants who will be sent to prison under the new laws they are intending to introduce, or both of course?
July 13, 2024
Spectator Magazine to Jacob RM? ‘Jacob, what should the Tory Party do now?’
Jacob: ‘We should just wait and see what Labour do and then act.’
NO. NO. NO. This is classic example of playing politics. Of being reactive only. Passive. Without acting from a firm set of beliefs / tactics / strategy / goals / vision.
This is why one reason why the Tory Party is in such a mess. Complete lack of leadership (Lack of : 1. Visions / goals. Lack of: 2. The leadership to implement these goals).
July 13, 2024
There are two categories of convicts which definitely should not be in prison. Firstly, there are several thousand who are serving “imprisonment of public protection” (IPP) terms. These unfortunates committed trivial non-violent offences, frequently for petty theft, and have been incarcerated in some cases for decades. Everyone agrees that these prisoners should be released. Now would be an excellent time to do so.
The second category are those imprisoned for cannabis offences. 81% of convictions for drug offences in England and Wales in 2022 were for small amounts of cannabis involving about 133,500 people (source;- Statista) and over 2500 are sent to prison for relatively short sentences each year.
Overwhelmingly, these prisoners are young black men found in possession of cannabis for the third or fourth time during police stop and search activities, or raids on their place of abode. These prisoners are harming nobody but themselves and could be released with no danger to the public at all.
July 13, 2024
SG
Afraid many of your habitual Drug users commit crime to fund their habit, as they seek to evade the real World.
In expanding their business the the drug runners, suck in the young (County Lines) and lead them into a possible life of crime.
July 13, 2024
The problem with thieves simply compensating the losers is that there are infinitely more thefts than there are thieves caught. I sat as a JP for 32 years and sometimes with offences like shoplifting there are dozens, if not hundreds, of previous offences and countless other offences by the same individual which have not been charged. Although compensation may be part of the sentence, what is needed is something to deter future offending. Sadly drug treatment and testing orders only rarely worked and for someone whose entire life style is drugs and stealing to fund them, the only possible sentence is one of incarceration to give the poor shopkeepers a rest from his activities. The cost of prison may be less than the value of the goods he might otherwise have stolen.
July 13, 2024
‘If a thief stole my car I would like him to have to buy me a replacement. I have no wish to have to pay for him to stay in prison if he could stay in work and pay compensation out of his wages.’
– Great idea. And I think the person should also be fined. To cover some extra compensation to you – and the rest to the government. This way crime pays (but not to the criminal).
If he can’t pay, then he should go to prison. But for a reduced time where the time is spent in learning a skill so that he can become useful to society – and himself. Perhaps, also / instead, a 3-month National Service (military / voluntary work) but from within prison).
July 13, 2024
It is interesting that lots of people have good, workable ideas on how to deal with criminals – but the people with the power to implement them either have no ideas or no motivation.
Forcing non violent criminals to wear a uniform with for example, âI am a drug dealerâ or âI am a shoplifterâ or âI am a car thiefâ or âI drink and driveâ or âI drove with no car insuranceâ etc. would surely be a great deterrent. How would it be enforced? With ankle bracelets and drones.
July 13, 2024
Mike, simply a longer sentence if they refuse to co-operate, problem is those who make the rules do not get their hands dirty at the sharp end, and so the rules are never implemented properly.
See my earlier post about community service, where the supervisor is virtually handcuffed by WOKE rules.
July 13, 2024
What is the story of Reading prison which has stood empty for years?
July 13, 2024
Awaiting Planning permission for another use, an Arts Centre I believe.
July 13, 2024
Bought by a Chinese-born businessman, to become a museum/education centre/exhibition space.
July 13, 2024
Crime is yet another example of the utter failure of the modern version of the state.
For a start the current annual cost of each prison place is ÂŁ49,000 and we are told it would cost ÂŁ600,000 to build each new prison cell. ÂŁ49,000 is so high as to be ridiculous and as our government can’t keep costs down they should send most prisoners to foreign prisons (with appropriately harsher conditions- great for deterrence) which could surely be done in some countries for under ÂŁ10,000 per year, maybe even for under ÂŁ5,000. As for ÂŁ600,000 for building each new cell, that is more than ten times too much when builders build sizable homes for under ÂŁ100,000 each in Northern England. As for failure to accommodate prisoners quickly, countries at war rapidly organise sufficient accommodation for huge numbers of prisoners of war.
Then there is the fact that after the harsh punishments of the Victorian era crime was just 76,000 crimes in the whole of Britain in 1900. I don’t know the exact current figure but it is around five million recorded crimes a year. That shows modern notions of rehabilitation and leniency don’t work but severe punishments deter. The cost of crime is enormous in us having to pay for numerous police, even more private security guards, high insurance premiums and huge disruption to the lives of victims of crime.
So let’s save money by sending criminals to harsh foreign prisons and let’s get ‘really tough on crime’ like the Victorians did which would massively reduce crime via real deterrence.
July 13, 2024
The prisons are full because the Conservatives didnât build enough of them. Itâs a bit late to be meaning now that as a result prisoners have to be let out early.
July 15, 2024
Agree your points but what I find confusing is all this reduction in sentencing. If you get life then it should mean for life. If you get 8 years how is it that you can get out on 40% reduction on just behaving yourself. Nothing to say you will not revert when you get loose and free.