Dear John Reid, David Davis and Nick Clegg,
I don't know what it is that you three get up to all day, but based on the latest Citizen Advice Bureaux report "Locked out", it would appear that none of you can be described as being fit for purpose. I suppose you have all been too busy with the petty politics of point scoring to even read the summary of the report let alone the report itself?
If this is the case, then feel free to comment here, or anywhere else in the media, to prove me wrong. I look forward to your replies, because as the CAB points out, "Crime touches everyone in society". So, we all have a stake on this issue, and it would be interesting to hear what responses, if any, you have to make.
Our prisons are dangerously overcrowded, and to make matters worse the re-offending rate is too high to afford the public the protection they so deserve. The system isn't working, is it? Prison does not work, and the National Offender Management System isn't managing sweet FA.
The Home Office has a problem. Our prisons are over full. It reminds me of film images of the trains in India where all the carriages are full, and passengers are also sat on the train carriage roofs and hanging from the sides of the carriages. In this example, the problem could be solved by putting on another train. But, this is where the analogy ends because the government plan to build more prisons doesn't lessen the problem. Rather, it adds to it. If every time a magistrate or judge contemplated giving an offender who does not need to be sent to prison a 12 month custodial sentence, instead they sent the taxpayers a £35,000 bill, it might make them reconsider and impose an alternative to custody sentence. More than two-thirds who are sent to prison re-offend. So, why send more there? Why build more prisons? In any other walk of life, once a bill has been paid would you be happy to pay it again? And, again? And, again?
Stop this nonsense. Now. What the CAB report highlights is that offenders are trying to curb their re-offending. However, the government instead of capitalising on this puts obstacles in the path of these offenders. The government is too busy playing the blame game, blaming offenders for its own acts of criminal negligence. The offenders lose out and more to the point so do the public. Look at the figures, do you prefer to pay £35,000 per prisoner per year (not including the cost of building new prison places), or pay the CAB £320 per year per offender to sort the problem out? The huge savings could be better spent on schools and hospitals.
I look forward to your responses.
Yours sincerely,
Jailhouselawyer.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
4 comments:
Rather than shelling out all the taxpayers money to house these criminals, I would be happy to administer 'revolutionary justice' for £40 a go, as soon as they have been convicted.
Ie: shoot them in the back of the head. 1 bullet each, then throw the bodies into 20 foot containers and dump them at sea, pierced so that they sink in mid-Atlantic.
End of problem. I reckon I could do at least 10 a day, 6 days a week. That's about 3,000 a year. If I concentrate on the serious ones and the repeat criminals, I should be able to make a nice dent in the crime stats, especially I I recruit 5 mates to do the same.
Thank you, Joe Stalin!
And then what then do we do with you, Mr Anonymous, you murderous sunnuvubitch?
Not only do you appear to relish the thought of killing but you also want to get paid for it.
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