What is prison for?

[New Judge]

Just watching “Newsnight” with Paxo. He’s at HM Prison High Down in Surrey. The prison handles mainly prisoners serving short sentences. He is there with Ken Clark talking about the effectiveness (or otherwise) of those prison sentences. On comes Peter Dawson, the prison Governor, who is asked what has been the effect on the prisoners of the short sentences that many of them serve. His reply: “Sending someone to prison always does harm to the person in prison. My job is to mitigate the harm is does to the person in prison and to their family”

And there’s me thinking that it is his job to keep them securely locked up, perhaps encourage them to sew a few mailbags and just ensure they are adequately fed and watered, but he made no mention of those responsibilities. No wonder prisons are so expensive to run if governors believe their role in life is “to mitigate the harm” that prison does to his charges.

I thought the idea of a prison was to inflict a bit of harm the miscreants with whom they deal. Or am I being a bit naive?

[chrissa1]

Slaps on the wrist, bail given where people have gone on to re-offend and sometimes murder, given a sentence and then released half was through it, etc etc etc etc

[NOX]

TTG I have frequently been the victim of crime... doesn't mean I have to lose the ability to think like a rational human being.

[chrissa1]

So build more jails. Those forts in the Thames Estuary fo a start.

[NOX]

and naturally chrissa crime in the victorian era just didn't exist did it?

[chrissa1]

No Nox of course it did. It will always be there, so why not just ignore it and let criminals run rife.
There is no deterrant to most crime at the moment. Commumity Service - P..lease!

[DTCwordfan]

On Nox's comment - would it be a good idea to take 15-17 year old teenagers from our inner cities into a prison for a visit....the message being "you don't want to end up in here"..........and an opportunity for reforming prisoners to disencourage them from taking up the life of crime. A softer form of this is to use prisoners who have done their term to visit and present to schools....

[237SJ]

Wyz - did you ever read Jeffrey Archer`s prison diaries? What did you think of them if you did?

[NOX]

My point was chrissa , which you seemed to have missed, the Victorian penal system was VERY draconian, to the point of being pure evil and it wasn't a deterant, crime during Victorian times was more than rife. You can't solve the problem of crime by locking the poor, vulnerable and mentally ill up and thinking they'll suddenly reappear years later reborn as someone from a Famous Five novel and jolly well glad they went in there and straightened their lives out with a bit of hard labour. THAT is stupid and naieve.

[chrissa1]

And the causes would be???????

[NOX]

I have actually done something similar to that DTcrosswordfan- plus i always try to employ people who are usually considered to be unemployable because of their prison record, problems etc. You'd be amazed how most people, not all to grant chrissa something in ehat she says, if they have a little bit of faith put in them and a little bit of opportunity- but really jail isn't a deterant- people never think they'll get caught, and jail didn't straighten me out, it made me more violent, more unstable and more likely to end back up there.Meeting my ex sorted me out, because she had some faith in me and didn't judge me out of hand.People need support not punishment.

[berniecuddles]

i think all oap's should be sent to prison,get free heating, 3 meals a day, all mod cons and no worries paying their bills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[chrissa1]

Poverty? Greed you mean, wanting what they haven't got, what decent harworking people have through ahrd work, qualifications and decency.