U-turn on supersized prisons is not so titanic
We should, I suppose, be grateful to the financial crisis for getting rid of one of the government's most thoughtless, misguided and damaging (to society) plans in the field of criminal justice - the building of three ultra-sized so-called Titan prisons, at an underestimated cost of £1.2bn, which would inevitably have doubled once building had commenced.
But if you believe the Ministry of Justice, money had nothing to do with it. How could anyone dare to think that the government wanted to cut down on expenditure? No, the real reason for scrapping the Titans, the ministry asserts, was that Jack Straw and his team had listened carefully to the points made by penal policy experts and reformers, and had suddenly been converted by the persuasiveness of their arguments. The concept of Jack Straw as a born-again listener to good sense is difficult to summon up, but that's what is being claimed. I was blind but now I see, he is expected to announce today.
UPDATE:
Related post...
No Titan jails? Great, now for reform
Far too much money in the prison system is being diverted to bureaucracy and away from work with offenders
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.
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