Locking up more people is a populist ploy that doesn't cut crime. We would focus on rigorous community sentences instead
Chris HuhneYou wouldn't run the NHS without testing the effectiveness of drugs. No sane economist would let you run the economy without elaborate modelling to test fiscal and monetary policies. It should be a given that important matters of public policy are based on evidence and research, rather than political whim. Why, then, is the field of criminal justice uniquely and scandalously divorced from this obvious rule?
The sort of incontrovertible good sense that somehow fails to put the great British public in touch with its own best interests. All the while, the infantile howling about Jon Venables fills the air and the airwaves.
ReplyDeleteThe notion that prison is the wrong answer is hardly new, and I agree with it. What is going to change it? I'm asking people to share their best ideas with me on my blog http://onprisons.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI've just started following your blog and hope you get hundreds more followers. I think that excessive and improper imprisonment of millions of people by "civilized" nations is the slave trade issue of our time. I'll try to read the rest of your blog and I hope to find out your views on The Justice Fellowship. I used to be part of the religious right and a substantial chunk of them have seen the light on this issue - the rest of them would gladly put 10% of the population behind bars for life.