Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The prison hulk is sinking, bail out, bail out...


With the government plan to release 2,000 prisoners early to ease overcrowding, we do not want a repetition of what happened recently in Italy.

What I find unacceptable, is that Operation Safeguard, the temporary housing of inmates in police and court cells, is costing £1M per week. Since October last year this has now cost the taxpayer £30M.

Unfortunately, Gordon Brown, before he even officially takes over as Prime Minister next week, is making the big mistake of looking at ways at how more prison places might be created. Rather, he should be seeking to implement methods of not sending so many to prison in the first place. Less prisons, and less prisoners is a sign of law and order working and not vice versa.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:28 PM

    law and order should not be an issue of how many are in prison or how many prisons. It is about protecting the public and deterring others from criminality.

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  2. I agree. The IPRT poll result is interesting from Ireland. The government should be paying it close attention, because it indicates how out of touch the government is in relation to public opinion on the issue of crime and punishment.

    ReplyDelete