World Have Your Say
The BBC World Service have just phoned me to take part in the programme tonight from 6 until 8 or 8.30. As I understand it, the topic under discussion will be whether the Americans have got it right to imprison so many of its citizens.
UPDATE:
‘The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners.’ No country in the world rejects the idea of prison, but of course they vary on which crimes warrant time spent inside. So does your country get the balance right?
Is it too quick to resort to locking people up? Or are more and longer prison sentences needed to keep criminals out of society and to provide a decent deterrent?
2 comments:
Laws are supposed to protect us all and are made for all. You do the crime you do the time, some see jail as a way out of paying fines etc so those kind of things should be looked at perhaps in different way. Serious offenders, rapists, murderers, habitual thieves, arsonists, all those kind crimes ...a slap on the wrist does no good. Jail don't really act as a deterrent either. There is huge complaint here in Oz that too many aboriginals are imprisoned, well race and colour has no bearing, same as before, you break the law you pay for it, race shouldnt exclude one from punishment others receive if they done the same thing.
Ahh, well, in the US if you're caught with cocaine, the sentences are much less than if you're caught with crack. Who can afford cocaine? White people. Who uses crack? Blacks. Even though possession of both theses drugs is usually a non-violent offense, people in possession of crack get higher sentences.
Post a Comment