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Problems with Prisons

TheCatWoman

Or rather the number of prisoners, I guess we're all familiar by now with the case of two young men convicted of the manslaughter of a police officer being released early. I get the government's in a horrible situation with the prospect of running out of prison places, but to many violent offenders will be released, not just those convicted of manslaughter, but those convicted of domestic violence and sexual offences, OK the grooming gangs and child rapists will stay inside, but how will the rest of us feel safe?

I think there must be better solutiions than prison, house arrest, comunity punishments somethings that other countries seem to do without problems. I think prison should really be for violent offenders and serious big time offenders. This would practically empty womens prisons, the majority of women in prisons aren't violent offenders.

But anthother problem society doesn't seem willing to face is why so many men are in prison for violent offences? I'm sure some of it is because we now recognise as crime many of the things previous generations frowned upon but didn't criminalise, like domestic violence and many sexual offences too. I think it's easy to say its all youths and young men being violent to eachother, but that's not the whole story, many of these people will have been imprisoned for things like violence against women and girls and this has always been a problem. I'm old enough to remember the first womens refuge opening in the 1970's and the outrage in the media and elsewhere it caused, the very idea that not only were men systematically abusing their wives, but that a woman had set up a safe house for victims and thier children and were not allowing men inside against the prevailing attitude that a man had the right to see his wife and children and tell them where to live. This is a society wide problem, we've just had another case of the Met Police and CPS failing to keep a man locked up who then went to rape and kill other women, 

What changes would you recomend to change attitudes to prison, crime and punishment, restitution, justice and the way that society treats certain groups, how do we change attitudes in insistutions like the police and military as well as in wider society?

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  • HM Inspectorate of Prisons said that in the last three years, 94 of 104 prisons have been rated poor or ‘not sufficiently good’. Most people agree that the prisons and the justice system aren’t fit for purpose any longer. Given the UK’s limited funds at the moment, I expect building prisons with modern facilities would be high on a long term plan, because without proper facilities, prisoners can’t be rehabilitated. Repeat offenders take up much prison space but most aren’t getting rehabilitated. https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/news/major-cuts-threaten-to-derail-already-poor-provision-of-work-and-training-in-prisons/  If at least some of these prisoners had been rehabilitated, it could have freed up more prison places for the most serious offenders.

    Prisoners of less serious crimes who are reoffenders could be released subject to attendance at something that would be appropriate to their needs, e.g., educational courses, work placements, retraining, mental health classes, counselling. Of course they would need to be accountable and so the probation service would need revamped too, to stop reoffenders slipping through the net.

    I think the propensity to violent crime and unhealthy attitudes to women and children, and to the sanctity of life, need to be addressed through education, beginning with age appropriate material from as early an age as possible, at least from P.1, continuing all the way through the school years. It won’t be a quick fix, but school age children are best placed to be receptive to new positive messaging, even if their parents aren’t.

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  • HM Inspectorate of Prisons said that in the last three years, 94 of 104 prisons have been rated poor or ‘not sufficiently good’. Most people agree that the prisons and the justice system aren’t fit for purpose any longer. Given the UK’s limited funds at the moment, I expect building prisons with modern facilities would be high on a long term plan, because without proper facilities, prisoners can’t be rehabilitated. Repeat offenders take up much prison space but most aren’t getting rehabilitated. https://hmiprisons.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/news/major-cuts-threaten-to-derail-already-poor-provision-of-work-and-training-in-prisons/  If at least some of these prisoners had been rehabilitated, it could have freed up more prison places for the most serious offenders.

    Prisoners of less serious crimes who are reoffenders could be released subject to attendance at something that would be appropriate to their needs, e.g., educational courses, work placements, retraining, mental health classes, counselling. Of course they would need to be accountable and so the probation service would need revamped too, to stop reoffenders slipping through the net.

    I think the propensity to violent crime and unhealthy attitudes to women and children, and to the sanctity of life, need to be addressed through education, beginning with age appropriate material from as early an age as possible, at least from P.1, continuing all the way through the school years. It won’t be a quick fix, but school age children are best placed to be receptive to new positive messaging, even if their parents aren’t.

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