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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Supervision of freed criminals is a 'catastrophe'

Supervision of freed criminals is a 'catastrophe'

The supervision of dangerous criminals in the community has been branded a "catastrophic failure" after it emerged that more are committing serious offences than ever before.

Mr Heath added: "For even one offender to commit another serious offence while under supervision is unacceptable. For 83 to do so in a single year — a tenth of all the offenders released from prison — is a catastrophic failure".

I think it is being unrealistic to expect 100% success rate for released offenders, and a 10% re-offending rate appears to be reasonable under the circumstances.

I think it has to be faced that prison does not work for everybody. I am firmly of the view that when a prisoner reforms he or she does so in spite of the system and not because of the system. Therefore, I would advocate individual treatment programmes. The one size fits all policy should be eradicated, and concentrate on the individual needs of each and every offender.

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