Prisons don't work, 67%+ reoffend often in a worse way. Is it time to become more drastic what would you do?

iritadragon

All those second offense criminals should be put into jobs that a hard and dirty and dangerous, that kill too many GOOD men way too young...like coal mining (or any other deeply underground mining work). Run the whole mining operation as a penal site, and make them earn their keep.

I am sure there are a lot of jobs that others can think of that could be better done by criminals whom society has to support currently. And maybe even have the money earned by these criminals (once their keep is paid) go towards compensating their victims.

graham_gooner

Hmm, a rather reactionary lot on here aren't you? Personally I don't see any easy solution to this problem. There is little or no evidence that locking up people for life, or even imposing the death penalty for any or all crimes has any effects on crime statistics, just look at the USA with three strikes and out and the death penalty in various states.
Certainly something needs to be done in the UK to address the problem. We currently have the lowest crime ratings on record, but also the highest prison population ever which suggests the prevention methods are failing but detection and conviction rates are rising.
Personally I'd favour the education and rehabilitation of prisoners. The evidence available points to the fact that prison, at the moment, only educates inmates to be better criminals and get better at not getting caught. Also drugs and alcohol are freely available in all prisons, making the rehabilitation of addicts nigh on impossible.
Unfortunately proper and effective measures along the lines of education, rehabilitation and drug rehabilitation will cost a lot more money than at present, and that is unlikely to ever be popular with the majority of the tax paying public.
However, the alternative is to carry on as we are, with spiralling costs to build more prisoners and to cover early release on a tagging system. Basically pay up to stay as we are or pay up more to try and improve the situation...

McClean

There is no sensible alternative. Thirty thousand pounds isn't so bad. Here in Ireland each prisoner costs â‚¬90,000 per year to keep.

Lord Robbie

kill all people who commit crime

Andy

What about plucking out their eyes and putting them back on the street with a tin cup?

Sir Sidney Snot

Make Prison UNPLEASANT to be in and maybe they wouldn't be in such a hurry to go back!

Common Sense

What do you suggest we do ?
We have no choices...

lissie

i would shoot all the cat A prisoners and use them for organ transplants and shoot the druggie because half of them are the walking dead any way!!

As for Shane m answer we all have a choice in the live and it`s which ever road you want to walk i get sick of hearing the same old crap every day!! and it is a Holiday camp

Make them work and pay restitution to their victims. Crimes against people should be capital crimes. That guarantees that that person does not commit another crime.And no seven years of appeals. Or send them all to Guantanamo.

melissawinters69

all rapists should have their dongs cut off...and murders? that is easy: shoot them all!!

Alter_Ego

You say that 67% re-offend. I would rephrase that as 67% get caught re-offending. The figure of those that re-offend will be so much higher. But the statistics are for those who get caught.
The trouble with prison is that it teaches criminals how to be criminals. They also don't do enough to integrate offenders when they are released. Prisons should be used as punishment and rehabilitation of offenders to allow them to be safe in society when they are released.
One day Ian Huntley will be back on our streets. I would be alot happier knowing that he had had all the therapy and help he needs to not do the same thing when he comes out. So I think the answer is in better rehabilitation of offenders.

darius b

I think the entire Political idea is obsoleet now. When man was limited to horseback and telegraphs or boats to tranfer information and power globally it was a fascinating game.. uh oh i mean job to have. but now we see it is destroying the fabric of our future we should start rethinking what we consider are the best things for our lives.

JANET M

we should bring back hanging or have the electric chair

hocegirl7

We need to keep help treat them with programs that are funded and staffed properly while they are being incarcerated. However, there is no way the government will be giving more money to the state or federal level, so it's a lose lose situation.

karlrogers2001

Only violent criminals should go to prison.

Prisons should be work camps and factories where prisoners earn their keep. If they don't work then they don't eat.

One of the things that they could usefully do is sort out all of society's rubbish for recycling and then reprocess it for reuse.
Prisons would pay for themselves.

The death penalty should only be reserved for people who insist on reading their own poetry out loud in public.

goodstuff2use4all

The easy solution is they will be interogated as spies by the international terroist camps

shiloh6662001

if prisons would stop the gently gently approach, and the access to tv's and game consoles etc in inmates rooms, and actually punish inmates properly for the crime they commited, maybe that would make criminals think about what their doing, I also think that the Police have had to much taken away from them, all this politically correctness is bull, bring back the old style policing, when we were actually scared of Police officers and a kick up the A** was deserved, it didnt do us any harm back then, The Guys and Girls in uniform on the street dont have a chance these days!

fearjar

Violence against a child, Death. Murder, Death. All other crimes a fitting sentence submitted by the victims family after negotiations with the perpatrators family or duly appointed council. Reoffenders, Death.

tonyinspain

HANG EM HIGH I WOULD VOLUNTEER FOR FREE.

Amanda K

The American prison where inmates have to wear pink jumpsuits and sleep in pink painted cells has a low re-offending rate. Maybe that is the way to go, a little ritual humiliation.

birdsnakecatharine

Instead of doing prison time, Democrats want rapists and killers to attend "Sensitivity Classes".

?Master

Bring back Vlad the Impaler.

casinodog

put all of the prisoners on an island by themselves.
ALL MALE ON ONE ISLAND.
ALL FEMALES ON ANOTHER

mattinhoustontx

keep 'em in prison, take away their tv and internet and all the other perks and give them bread and water until they die

Ricky C

1. all immigrents that break the law have to serve time then get deported so why not just deport them to start with.

2. bring back capitol punish ment and sell there body parts i.e hearts, lungs etc the chinesse are doing it its working for them.

3. why not use rappists and pedos for drug testing that way it will stop animals being used well in a sense.

4. try building a few more prisons the crime rate might not be growing but the population is.

Shane M

Talk of capital punishment, corporl punishment and 55 years for mugging are never going to happen and rightly so - let's hope that things have moved on the past 100 years anyway.

The fact that alot of people end up going back to prison is down to many things including drugs, mental health problems, bad home situations, nowhere to live, no family support, how hard it is to get a job and the fact that normally when someone is released from prison they are on probation and are likely to be caught more easily and if they are caught are more likely to be charged and end up back in court.

There are some people who are just so much a part of criminal life that they see prison as part of the risk of what they do and accept that they might end up back inside but there are alot of people - 33% from the figures above - who get on with life after leaving prison and stay out of trouble.

What I'm saying is that not everybody in prison is a murderer or rapist - only a small minority are - and people end up there for all sorts of reasons and prison affects people in different ways.

I've been in prison in Ireland (guessing it's pretty similar to England) and didn't find it easy - it's not a holiday camp at all and is the last place most normal people would want to be. You lose all control over your life and are told what to do and when to do it. You eat, sleep, get excercise when you are told and that's it. Where I was we were locked up for at least 16 hours a day and sometimes more - there were no toilets in the cell so you would have to slop out each morning - so your cell was where you ate, slept, and pissed. Yes we had books, radio, CDs, TV but otherwise you would go mad with the boredom. Screws say that having these things make their jobs better as people are more likely to stay out of trouble if they are occupied. People say that they didn't have TV in prison years ago but then most families didn't have TVs years ago so things change for everybody. And we didn't have internet or mobiles or anything like that either. Anything you do have can be taken off you if you break any rules so it is an incentive to stay out of trouble.

You get sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment and it is bad being away from your family and friends. We got a 6 minute call a day and one visit a week - and that was all the contact you had with those you cared about.

So does prison work? It probably does if you want it to. In my own situation I'll admit I had been on probation before and did something stupid and got caught. I knew there was a chance I was going to prison and that scared the hell out of me. That was enough for me to cop on - I didn't need to go to prison for that to happen but I did and I don't want to go back again.

I was in for just over 3 months and that time was bad enough - just feeling that anything could happen to you. People who are there for a long time or who come back seem to adjust to it better but that's probably to be expected. I can't understand how anybody could though.

Most of the money that people say it costs to keep a prisoner in most places go on wages - it's not like prisoners are getting luxuries. The food is OK and you have to pay for stuff like drinks, chocolate, smokes yourself so people aren't paying for 'treats' as such. Most people would prefer to work but where I was there wasn't enough work for everybody. I would have much preferred to be out doing something useful instead of being locked up but didn't have that choice. The same people who say prisoners should be working would be shouting about how they don't want to have prisoners working in their area - assuming everybody is a murderer or rapist.

I didn't need to go to prison to learn my lesson and would have been much more useful doing community service and keeping my own job and paying tax and whatever but that wasn't my choice. I was given a 6 months suspended sentence as well and that is hanging over me for the next few years so there is no way I will be getting into trouble again.

You can't say that what's needed is the same in every situation because it isn't. All I'm saying is don't believe all youu read about people thinking it's a holiday camp and not minding going there because that's not the case, at least where I was (Mountjoy in Dublin).

Since I got out earlier this year a guy there has been murdered by another prisoner, there have been loads of assaults and a couple of suicides. You don't have that in holiday camps

Send 'em to Australia ...

Dr bad

trigga1uk

I think you have to go to the root of this issue. How many scumbags in this country had parents who were scumbags and their parents were scumbags. Stop these 'people' from breeding. Yea i know its drastic and possibly a bit fascist but desperate times! Whats the best way to stop some 17 year old stabbing a guy outside a pub in the year 2021, dont let him exist in the first place. Crime levels in this country would drop by about 80%. But its a case over who decides who can breed and who cant.

Mary

thats true they just learn to be worse criminals because of what inside. they come out more angry what more can you do.

Pure Justice

you kill you deserve a death sentence you steal we cutt of your arm you steal again we cutt of the other arm its not that we take your arm so u cant steal again ... you lost those arm benefits when you decided to steal. so that arm is taken away from you. you rape we cutt of your arm and the opposite leg - i bet you wont be able to rape again. your insane you deserve treatment. jail is not a solution it only makes things worse, when 5 yrs pass and ur surrounded by the criminal society and then released to the normal society you wont fit in and people wont accept you because of ur criminal history. punishment shouldnt be jail... it should be done instantly who gives the right to imprison people by who's laws do we imprison people or decide that theft is 3 yrs killing is 20 yrs or so ... who made those decisions for us... am pretty sure its not god ...

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