Ian Huntley has died

[Viviennemary]

That's according to BBC news. Can't say I'm sorry.

Even a glance at this thread shows me that the act of women taking their knitting to executions hasn’t really died out.

The BBC didn't get the memo then as it's just been on the ten o'clock news.

To be fair, considering what men have done to women and girls historically, and what still goes on now, globally - the dehumanisation, the powerlessness, the depravity, the objectification, the enabling of each others' behaviour, and the utter apathy over their fellows' misogyny even if they're not 'actively' misogynistic themselves...
Can you really blame women for being satisfied when a man who murdered two girls is killed? Do you really expect a woman to have any empathy for a man like that?

I'd knit at the gallows quite happily over a man who took girls' lives without so much as a thought to their humanity, and fed on their fear.

Sure, the prison system shouldn't allow for a prisoner to get hold of a weapon, if only because they could hurt prison employees, or traumatise them with the violence they do...but it did happen, and rather than a prison employee being hurt, a murderer was killed by a man who will never be released from prison. Compared to what could've happened, it seems like a satisfactory outcome.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15624767/Flush-ashes-toilet-Ian-Huntley-daughter-Soham-child-killer-funeral.html

Neither did this new outlet, that's the most clicked in the world.

Aside from using the image, prolonging the stress for the families and so on, the Mail quotes this

’…which saw him hit with the metal weapon and 'ripped apart like a rat', according to a woman who visited the prison previously.’

This makes no sense. How could a woman who had previously visited someone at the prison have witnessed what happened in a workshop? The Mail is utterly full of shit.

She will be the partner of someone in the prison

Oh it's an appalling article. I agree.

She may be yes, that wouldn’t give her access to a workshop though.

I've spent over 30 years working in and around prisons, including maximum security, and always with male prisoners. I've read the full thread and have a lot of time for posters like @IThinkPink and @Lemonfrost with their respect for rule of law and safe, decent prison conditions. Prisons are full of men who have done dreadful things and caused enormous harm and pain to others. Those serving decades in jail have to find positives and hope in order to remain human. Prisons that damage and dehumanise are a public danger- they make bad people worse, they become engine rooms for more crime, they are a stain on society and they put staff at increased risk. A decent prison system treats people better than they deserve- if the state removes their rights to liberty it has to accept responsibility for their safety.
I can't claim to be sad that Ian Huntley is dead. But it's not a good thing that this could happen. It's not good that prisoners carry out killings for notoriety. It's not good to have prisoners living in fear of attack. It is good that incarcerated criminals are given work to do and ways to pass the time constructively. But doing so introduces risk, which prison staff have to manage, and occasionally that risk manifests into shocking violence.

About 15 years ago a prisoner in Frankland stabbed a number of Prison Officers. He claimed in court that his experience in prison had so brutalised and damaged him that his actions amounted to self defence. We should never want that to be the reality, because it removes a vital protection for prison officers that their authority is accepted by prisoners as legitimate.

Winston Churchill wrote that the infallible test of a civilised society is the state of its prisons. How we treat and manage our outcast and unpopular citizens is a challenge to human nature. Murderers like Ian Huntley are the extreme example and it takes a lot of character to show care as well as control to men like him. But you can't have a threshold at which humanity and rule of law cease to apply.

I actually thought the article was ok. I know the woman wouldn't have been in the workshop it's just hearsay and the article could have made that clearer. Whatever "torn apart like a rat" means anyway

It wasn’t justice taking its course. The man who attacked him was as inhuman as Huntley was.

Those poor little girls

yes well, another one bites the dust, anyhow life goes on

I think @Growlybear83 may be correct in that maybe the guards let it go down

To be fair, a society can have decent prisons and still be a hotbed of corruption, misogyny, racism, and god knows what else. How a society treats male criminals has little bearing on how it treats women, children, and those it considers 'outsiders' (ethnic minorities).

on the flip side by the very human nature you can have the most nicest treatment and prisons etc and still some people still choose to be bad, so then what should society to do ? let them take the piss ?

for certain crimes theres no logic to keeping them in prisons when resources could be used else where. because once they turn bad then chances are they will always be bad so not to sound cold but why waste resources on them when they are not suitable for society ? (im only discussing prisoners/crminals who commit omg crimes etc)

There's no chances are about a child murderer. They have irrocevably tarnished their soul

thats what i mean, but i didnt want to seem too cold,

I'm glad the prick is dead, but do you understand the concept of remand? I'm not sure how it works in the UK but where I live you go straight into the general population whilst awaiting trial or sentencing. This can be for any crime, if you don't get bail. I don't think if this was a relative of yours you would want a mad man running around with an iron bar. How did he get the bar anyway?

Don't be ridiculous. Letting one murderer kill another is not justice taking its course.

Agree. Tbh I just don’t see the point of life sentences for anyone. I’m not pro death sentence for vengeance reasons (although I understand the rationale), but I don’t honestly see the point in jailing people for life. It’s expensive for us, hell for the prisoner and I just don’t see what purpose it serves. A humane alternative would be far better in my opinion. and yes, I also get that killers like Huntley don’t deserve a humane option, but I think as a civilised society, there must be a way around this for prisoners where there is literally no doubt of their guilt.

there is, basically the chair

The electric chair?

This.