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Is This Justice; Early Release of Prisoners
Topic Started: Wednesday, 20. June 2007, 01:26 (429 Views)
Derekap
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About 1980 some of my "customers" were women being released from prison and deported. The local police contacted me to book their flights and issue tickets. Where possible the cost was paid for by the prisoners to the police. The customers were taken by police to the airport, handed over to the airport police who in turn saw them onto the aircraft. Eventually a Security Company was handed the job and we lost the business.
Derekap
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Rose of York
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tomais
Jun 22 2007, 08:06 PM
All of the above a perfect example of the " dining room" chattering classes indilging in their own exemplory reasoning- well coan do we mostly do but here not a single example of - this is what I have done- I wrote to the Goverment oficial I carried out one of the corporal mercies-
no wind in the wine fuelled wind.
Try writing to the daily mail you might just get printed or some of you will

tomais, we have on this forum, people who are far too ill to do much other than discuss matters, with friends. There is no harm in seeking good companionship. We also have people who care, full time for sick people.

Add to that, members who are involved in charitable work. Chattering classes indeed! Judge not! We just happen to enjoy communicating with each other.

We who are in no position to do prison visiting may well be friends with former prisoners, not picking and choosing our pals according to the usual norms of "social respectability". Yer never know, matey! I'm not sure which members have done a stretch. I don't ask.

Keep the Faith!

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K.T.B.

Quicunque vult
Jun 22 2007, 11:46 AM
The long-term solution is of course a return to Christian teaching and values: the promotion of good, sound family life, the value of community and a move away from consumerism, materialism and “me-first” attitudes. 



Yes, I'd start here, too, Q.V. rather than put more police on the streets, or put more people in prison, why not put more parents in the home? Criminal psychologists suggest that one of the causes of crime is that many criminals lack empathy, their anger and aggression being the result of a lack of attatchment to carers in the early years of childhood. I feel that family life has to be given much more of a priority by the Government if we want to see crime reduced.

As for prisons, like Rose, I don't believe prisons are the soft option we are led to believe by certain sections of the press. I feel some conditions in British prisons are quite primitive. I'd like to see more community sentencing for certain types of crime.
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Rose of York
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A teenager goes to prison, for the first time. The more dedicated members of staff try to help him raise his hopes and aspirations, but he (or she) is influenced by other prisoners, some of whom will do their best to convince the new prisoner there is no point in living within the law. It doesn't seem to make sense. Other prisoners can negate the good that is done by staff, chaplains and prisoner visitors.

I agree with KatyB. For some prisoners, community sentencing may be more effective. Mind you, I think some sentences are too lenient, for example today a woman was sentenced to 12 years, after allowing her daughter to be gang raped repeatedly throughout childhood. That woman will be eligible for parole in a few years. If she does not repent and reform, how many others will fall under her influence when she is free?

Keep the Faith!

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CARLO
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In my experience our prisons are not full because of foreign prisoners. Our UK prison population is overwhelmingly British although like Rose I am open to be convinced otherwise if someone can provide credible statistics.

Prison is not a pleasant place. Generally the 'comforts' that exist are there to ensure that prisoners simply stay sane and do not completely 'lose it' which would cause the taxpayers bill to rise even further to pay for the additional care and supervision that would be required. Many disturbances in our prisons go unreported - perhaps rightly so.

Longer sentences also mean more cost to the taxpayer.

Hands up all those prepared to pay higher taxes for longer sentences and more prisons.

Pax


CARLO

Judica me Deus
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pete

As much as I would like to add to this subject, lately I have been far too busy. As an ex Prisoner Custody Officer and an ex Submariner I would have given anything for the comfort of a prison cell any time. Firstly, I didn’t volunteer for submarines I got drafted into them. Forty or more sailors in cramped sleeping quarters, why even the Captain of the submarine would be envious of a prison cell compared to his own little grot.
Why people sympathise with poor prisoners I will never know, true some come from horrid backgrounds but not all. Some people are just evil and need to be locked up so that people like you and me can walk the streets without being attacked.
You may think it strange for a Christian to say this, but I would love to see the birch introduced for certain re-offenders as Asbos are not effective as a punishment but as a badge of honour.
If you need evidence of the large number of foreigners in our jails, I would suggest that you attend Horsham Magistrates Court. Dozens and Dozens of defendants attend two or three times a week, caught smuggling drugs through Gatwick Airport. The numbers are so great, extra staff is shipped in to deal with this drug dealing epidemic, I’m sure it’s similar at all the UK major airports. So why should we taxpayers pay for H.M. keep of these prisoners, send them back to their own countries and reduce our own prison population. We are no longer able to produce enough prison accommodation and the courts are being told not to send criminals to jail unless it’s absolutely necessary.
God bless
Pete
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Rose of York
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Pete that is fair comment about people from overseas comitting crimes here. You have been an eye witness, I have not.

I had no intention of sympathising with prisoners in general, all I did was dispute that they have a lovely life, I suppose it depends partly on one's expectations, and I do agree there are some who should be locked up for life. However I cannot see what would be gained from inhumane treatment of those serving life sentences, that would debase the people dishing out the treatment. Some do need to be permanently imprisoned in the interests of public safety.

Am I correct in thinking members of the Royal Navy are all volunteers for the Navy, and know they could be drafted to submariner duties? I have shared a barrack room (wooden hut) with 23 others, it was probably lower standard accommodation than a womens' prison of that decade but - I had volunteered, knowing that would mean giving up a certain amount of freedom, that decision was mine alone, and I gained much during those years in the services. You can hold your head up high, when you tell people you were in the services, but you will get no respect for having been in prison for comitting a crime, so I say it is not an easier life in prison. Water runs down the walls of Armley prison, it soaks the prisoners' blankets and many get chest problems, well that was definitely the case when I knew a man who had just been released from there, it is possible there have been improvements. That prison is known for a high suicide rate.

pete
Jun 23 2007, 11:37 PM
As an ex Prisoner Custody Officer and an ex Submariner I would have given anything for the comfort of a prison cell any time.

Pete are you saying the Custody Officer's living accommodation is worse than a prison cell?
Keep the Faith!

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Derekap
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When I joined-up I was billeted for preliminary army training on the uneven tiled ground floor of a dye-factory in Perth, Scotland. There must have been well over a thousand of us. We had two tier rough wooden bunks and straw palliasses. We had to march about five minutes in the November gloom for meals in a similar building and queue-up outside to await our turn to enter and queue for meals. We were joined by hundreds of other raw recruits billeted in other buildings and we had to be careful not to slip on the floor splattered with spilt tea and sometimes food. I then went to Redford Barracks in Edinburgh and there were about 40 of us to a room. At first we had to sleep on the floor because the beds had been transferred to the ATS nearby - not in the same barracks. We eventually got similar bunks to those in Perth.





Derekap
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pete

Quote:
 
Pete are you saying the Custody Officer's living accommodation is worse than a prison cell?


Not at all, I was stating that I have seen both sides of the coin; Custody Officers are responsible for their own accommodation, whereas Servicemen are not. Life in both prisons and submarines has improved drastically over the years. As a submariner on diesel boats (submarines) conditions were intolerable. Water was rationed for the period from leaving harbour until you returned to base, ( a putrid lot we were ). We also had hot bunking, as a member of the crew took up his watch, the guy coming off watch took over the same bunk, hence the term, (hot bunking). I remember on one boat I was on I was allocated a bunk called the coffin, not enough room in which to turn. It was necessary to decide if you wanted to sleep on your back or front before sliding in, once inside the coffin that was it until you got up. Nuclear boats are more comfortable unless you are a part 3 trainee, then you sleep in the torpedo compartment on top of hundreds of pounds of explosives. Those of the ships company, not trainees have the luxury of an allocated bunk in the sleeping quarters shared by 50 others.
Having seen the sleeping accommodation given to prisoners, any commanding officer in the submarine service, would have been delighted for something similar.
God bless
Pete
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Rose of York
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I demand occupational pensions for retired prisoners. ;)
Keep the Faith!

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