The government are stuck between a rock and hard place regarding early prison releases.

[Kaidaia]

Let me stress I’m not in agreement with prisoners not serving full/ adequate sentences

However I’m not sure what the answer is

1. build more prisons or expand the prisons already there- there would be outcry. No one wants a prison near them or the prisons getting bigger
2. review who should be sent to prison and for what in the first place- again there would be outcry

I just think there is no easy answer

What complete twaddle

Death penalty. Watch the crime rates plummet, as well as your taxes. Win-win all round.

57% of people in jail are illterate or barely literate at 11 year old levels.

My own DC nearly left school iliterate because she couldn't do phonics and there was no other option for her.

So a longer term step would be to have a flexible catch all reading scheme and this will feed into all kinds of things like greater self esteem and so on.

Secondly yes I'd rather have a female burglar back on the streets than a male rapist. If that's the terrible choice we have to make.

Obviously cases have to be judged individually. (To some extent they are.) Has this thread been started because of the petition against the release of the killers of PC Harper?

Capital punishment means extra expense. In USA, death penalty prisoners cost wildly more than prisoner average.

www.cato.org/blog/financial-implications-death-penalty

UK could have a Chinese system. Every person who gets arrested, they confess and get executed within a month. If that's what people want.

Or could have a Japanese system. Presumed guilty until proven innocent.

If you want better public services, you don't need more taxes, the services need to be delivered more efficiently. Throwing money blindly at a problem doesn't solve anything. Prisoners are not deterred by spending time in jail. They rarely come out rehabilitated because the money isn't there for proper rehabilitation and reintegration into the community. Prison staff are also hampered in their efforts to rehabilitate inmates due to the Human Rights Act. Prisons are generally out of control with a lack of staff to counter prisoners demands and correct behaviour. Generally speaking, prisons are drug dens with a whole array of new skills to acquire from other inmates should decide to go down the career criminal path. There is very little support for them once they have served their sentence and many end up back in prison within weeks of release. That's because criminality is an easier option and prison is just a hazard of the job. I don't agree with prisoners being let out early, but I also don't agree that the state of our prisons does anything to rehabilitate offenders. The whole criminal justice system needs looking at In depth. Prison needs to be a deterrent so appeals to ECHR about a denial of rights should stop. They shouldn't have luxuries in prison and cell time needs to be increased. Prison should be a deprivation of liberty not a club that you attend to meet mates. Money needs to be well spent and planned around rehabilitation psychology, restorative justice etc. There shouldn't be a need for relaxed rules and prisoners should be shackled out side of their cells which would make life easier for prison officers. People are in prison to atone for what they've done, not enjoy time with mates, take drugs and watch TV. Once the first few thousand have been through a very different prison system, with proper support on sentence completion and none of the freedoms they currently get inside, hopefully progress will be made on rehabilitation. At the moment it's a revolving door and Cat A and some Cat B prisoners should never be considered for release as they are a danger to the public. This government and the previous one have done nothing other than create an illusion of progress. We don't need more prisons to be built we need what we have to work properly.

Hmm. How’s that working for the US?

This. Prevention is better than cure every time. Sadly it costs money and nobody wants to pay - you'll just get lots of squawking about how people on benefits are given everything handed to them, be it days out of the crumbling tower block or free therapy. So on we go...

This is actually being considered

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤡

Hugs for thugs! 🥰🥰🥰

ITS EVERYONE ELSES FAULT!!! 😭😭

Hmm, four beds in a single pad.
With one toilet.
Locked up for around 23 hours a day.

I'm not sure how that would work in terms of risk management, safety, security, and prisoner movement.

And then there are questions about recidivism, rehabilitation, and reoffending.

I prefer the butlins model

I think they could release anyone who isn't in prison for violent crimes/crimes against people and that would free up a few places. They can always do litter picking or something (I'd have thought it was better than being in jail).

They could try (although I know it's hard) to deport some of the foreign prisoners.

And they could look at the womens prisons, again release those not in for violent crimes and then move the others around and potentially again free up some places for men. I have no idea how many womens prisons there are but lets say there are 10 - release a few, move some others and you might free up 3 prisons for men.

And I don't think prison rehabiliates people. We lock people up for our own safety. Otherwise people should be punished in other ways.

I agree we should prioritise early release and deportation for foreign nationals. Even if we have to pay for them to be taken and imprisoned in their own country. They should be deported and if they are captive it should be easier. The grooming gang members are exempt from the scheme but how many of them should be deported on release? If they should be, just do it earlier. Also agree with releasing women who are in for minor issues and convert winds to male prisons.

Wasn’t this a Sunak policy?

I went on a tour of an old prison (Shrewsbury) and our tour guide was an ex prison officer. I strongly recommend it for anyone who thinks there is an easy answer to avoiding recidivism.

I back the suggestion of alternative sentences for non violent offenders - particularly women. I also strongly support more help for children as risk of criminality. I teach a fair few and they need way more intensive support than a mainstream school can give them. But nobody wants to pay for the specialist help.

Oh, and deporting foreign nationals before they’ve served time can mean they get no prison time at all. In many cases their country of origin won’t want the expense of imprisoning them. Or simply don’t agree the crime (eg rape) was deserving of prison.

There is a prison in Reading that is empty! It was closed in 2013 and is just being left to rot!

Have you ever been in one? It doesn't seem likely from this description.

I'm thinking if they have to release prisoners after half their sentence, not immediate deportation.

Yes, that I agree with. However, it can take a long time because the deportation process is slow - mostly (imo) due to years of underfunding. The same reason there’s such a backlog of asylum claims when rapid processing would mean they’d either be sent back quicker or granted asylum and allowed to work and support themselves.

There were a few people upthread to suggested deporting the entire “foreign national” prison population though. I just wanted anyone reading to actually think through the consequence of deporting someone who has only just been convicted of rape.

We jail a higher percentage of offenders than almost any other country in Europe and it doesn't work.

We need to do something different.

A prison near me is now housing!!!

I do think the answer is multi pronged.

Better services better education system that doesn’t disenfranchise young people in their teens
better education in prison

better MH services
stricter prisons where necessary
better early intervention
more police
more investment in the judicial system

Basically all those things that use to function before austerity ran them down need investment again.

unfortunately it costs more to reverse bad decisions than it costs to have kept them going in the first place.