Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Consequences

Don't do the crime if you are not prepared to do the time, used to be the old maxim before various ministers tried to find ways to cut corners and reduce the prison population rather than build more prisons, though frequently enough they were prepared to let any prisoners out early violent or not. Yet what happens if there is no real penalty for committing a crime?

Express.
MORE than 10,000 yobs have snubbed anti-social behaviour orders, it was revealed yesterday.
Government figures show 56 per cent of Asbos issued between 1999 – when they were introduced by Labour – and 2009 have been breached.
It found 45,599 Asbos were flouted across England and Wales between June 2000 and December 2009.
In 2009 – the latest year for which statistics are available – 1,671 Asbos were issued and 1,133 broken. Officials found that one Asbo – often imposed to control the behaviour of thuggish street yobs – was breached more than four times on average.
I can't imagine what was going on in the heads of labour politicians other than this is a cheap (and unsupervised) way of dealing with the odd thug who they didn't want clogging up the prison/remand/probation system. It wasn't even an effective slap on the wrist as 56% of those given them simply ignored them, it just added an extra layer between the courts and prison. Inevitably it was used for things it was never designed for, as well as ridiculous lengths of time it often applied for.
If we are going to deal with criminals and anti social behaviour then the punishment has to be such that the offenders will not wish to re-offend. I'm not saying that persistent littering should carry a death penalty or any such, but that those who do it and get caught should not simply get told not to do it again or else. Not even kids are fooled by that one, it's what's known to them as an empty threat, nor am I suggesting birching or flogging, though in certain instances I could see it having an effect, however as the human rights act and various do-gooders would go into apoplexy over really punishing criminals they aren't options (yet) The answer I believe would be hard tough but short sentences, up at 6, made to run or jog to every task (mundane stuff), basic food, no tv, no interaction and early to bed. Most kids wouldn't know what had hit them and probably wouldn't want to do it again, that said, others might have better ideas and would no doubt work far better than an ASBO.
Certainly something needs to be done if the figures are anything to go by.

4 annotations:

Anonymous said...

I think that the last conservative government was going to do something like that, and that "every prime minister needs a Willie" Whitelaw, was going to run it. I'm not sure why they decided to give up on it.

Perhaps it was too expensive. Certainly one of the arguments of this government is that it costs thousands of pounds to keep someone in prison.

Personally, if I thought that the police and courts were as bent as nine bob notes, I'd say for anti-social kids, that a regime like that and only porridge and vitamin pills to eat and no luxuries at all, would be a good idea, but we don't want them honing their muscles at our expense. A thug is bad enough without mr Cameron making them stronger and fitter thugs.

Unfortunately I do believe that the police and the courts are as rotten as a 20 day old halibut in Mali.

Probably what most of them need is medical assistance to come off whatever it is that they are on, and a diet of wholemeal foods with no additives. Oh and they need their dicks tied in a knot, or their women’s bits stuffed with something to make them impenetrable so that they stop having bloody children whose lives look like sheer hell.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX or their women’s bits stuffed with something to make them impenetrable so that they stop having bloody children whose lives look like sheer hell.XX

It is called "removing child benefit".

Just see how quick THAT would work.

James Higham said...

... or a stint in the army.

Quiet_Man said...

Not sure the army want them James.