Prisons

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

They are currently undertaking a prison building programme of sorts; that is to house the increasing number of elderly offenders who've been found guilty of historical sexual offences, who have fairly exacting needs, given their age and likely infirmity. I'd lay a pound to a pinch of shit that the average age of our prison population has risen significantly in the last five years and will continue to do so.

The over 60's has risen by over 150% in this decade, to about 5000. Of these some 40% are abuse related. Of even more concern is the number of ex-servicemen in there. They are at over 9000, about 10% of the UK prison population. There appears to be no plan to alter current 'strategy'. When will governments (and populations) realise that wars on nouns (crime, drugs, terror) are doomed to failure? We lock up far more people than anyone else in Western Europe, to little or no effect, but it costs more, per prison day, than anywhere else. Still, the UK has never been shy of keeping on with something that's proven not to work......

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

I think we might make a little progress here if Truss were to take on the job of prison officer for a month. Then we might see some improvement in overall prison strategy!

 

[aguero93:20]

Her parents weren't soft, yours were abusive.

You never met young me.

 

[CTID1988]

You never met young me.

Yeah but a knife across the back of your legs? A belt and wooden spoon? Nettles!? Doesn't matter what you did id still call that child abuse!
Id never understood why people think its ok to do that to their own kids, but if you heard of somebody doing that to somebody in the street who pissed them off you'd think they were a mentalist!

 

[Why Always Ste]

Fuck me, just looked online and the pay is shite. Fuck doing that job for that money.

For you maybe, but right now I'm earning much less than the average prison officer salary, no pension schemes either.
So it does look like a good option for me, as I'm already in environments during work which is dealing in similar situations Officers often find themselves in.

I'd rather be playing for City on 200k p/w but it ain't happening so let's lock it up :)

 

[Chippy_boy]

Is this a debate about prisons, or about drugs?

I agree entirely that we should attempt as much as possible to bring drug use under supervised control, within the law. If heroin addicts could go to a clinic to get a free - or cheap - fix with quality controlled drugs, and no risk of HIV or infection etc, it would pretty much kill of the illegal drugs trade and a HUGE number of people currently in prison would not ever have needed to be there.

My cousin is a heroine addict and has been in and out of prison pretty much all his adult life because try as he has many times, he simply cannot get himself off the evil stuff. His life is ruined, as was that of his poor mum (sadly now passed) who eventually had to disown him and not let him in the house for fear of him stealing from her again. I know in the context of that it seems odd to say he's a nice guy, but genuinely underneath it all, he is. He just got in with the wrong crowd and did some stupid things and the rest is history. Doubtless he'll die of the stuff sooner or later - he's late 40's now and homeless. Anything we could do to bring this under control would get my vote.

 

[grunge]

On one hand I see the point of legalizing drugs but what drugs? Marijuana ok as people get criminal convictions for something that equates to a 6 pack of beer but heroin? I don't think that should or ever will be legalised so there will always be a black market.

Drug use in prison is partly to dull the experience and partly to kill the time. Those are easier root causes to deal with.

As far as criminals re-offending.. a part of that is lack of job opportunities after being released. What are the ranges of skills that can be learned in prison and used after prison? I'm not sure if people would be happy to employ them but there may be government schemes that can be implemented at a far lesser cost that what it is to keep 1 prisoner locked up for a year.

Sure this seems like liberal molly coddling but locking them up for extended periods of time hasn't worked.

My view on the legalising of drugs ( I was writing on my phone so didn't expand ) is literally all drugs should be legalised, heroin for example should only be available on prescription though so that doctors can monitor and target those in need of help.

My logic behind it is the fact that it would kill 99% of the black market over night. It would significantly reduce petty crime/muggings to pay for those drugs, it would allow a lot of users to be able to get the help they need and to help turn them into productive members of society, it would generate tax revenue, It would result in fewer deaths related to users being poisoned by unknown strenghts of the drugs and them being cut with crap, and it would take a lot of pressure off of the prison system to allow them to deal with harder criminals.

Like all drugs ( cigs/booze for example ) there would be a side effect and there would still be those black marketeers who try to undercut the market so it wouldn't clear it up entirely but it would help a lot.

As for reoffending rates, Looking at prison systems around the world, its those who consentrate on rehabilitation over punishment that work the best. At the moment criminals go in and come out again with more knowledge and skills on how to be a better criminal, not a better member of society.

 

[grunge]

Is this a debate about prisons, or about drugs?

I agree entirely that we should attempt as much as possible to bring drug use under supervised control, within the law. If heroin addicts could go to a clinic to get a free - or cheap - fix with quality controlled drugs, and no risk of HIV or infection etc, it would pretty much kill of the illegal drugs trade and a HUGE number of people currently in prison would not ever have needed to be there.

I bought up the drugs thing purely because of the fact that about 35% of the prison population are addicts. take that 35% out of the prison system and the over crowding goes away.

 

[aguero93:20]

Yeah but a knife across the back of your legs? A belt and wooden spoon? Nettles!? Doesn't matter what you did id still call that child abuse!
Id never understood why people think its ok to do that to their own kids, but if you heard of somebody doing that to somebody in the street who pissed them off you'd think they were a mentalist!

Yeah well, each to their own. I'd call confining a child to a bedroom on their own child abuse but I know plenty of people who see a slap as far worse. Tbf I've never raised a hand to a child of my own, but then the missus deals with most of the discipline and we use anything having to be referred to me as a potential greater threat. Pretty sure she doesn't use belts, knives, nettles or wooden spoons :)

 

[grunge]

No wonder a large proportion reoffend.

Fish and chips bob hope and the ordering of takeaways ?
They even do home brew !

Its all her in todays online Mail which incidently is a right rivveting read.
Its a proper paper with big words in it so be careful Cellarites.
Not like them comics you get at the Sun Star and Mirror

Here we go ..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ccidentally-added-Facebook-friend-inmate.html

2 words that should never be applied to the Mail.