To think that prisoners should have to pay towards their keep?

[girlfriend44]

So you commit a crime and go to prison and your kept also for free, no money worries etc.
If you can afford it shouldnt you pay something towards it? it costs country alot of money to keep you locked up why not contribute?
Your not exactly spending your money while your locked up anyway.

Which prisoners are in there that aren't dangerous?

People who haven't paid for their tv license, for one! Look up the statistics, they're insane

I will do, I had no idea!

Most of them. There has been an increase in the percentage of violent offenders in jail but it's gone up from 25% to just under a third. Theft makes up nearly 25%, drug offences, motoring offences. I do think that electronic tagging/ house arrest and drug treatment programmes should be more frequently used. It costs a fortune keeping someone who is a drug addict locked up because they've taken up shoplifting to pay for their habit. Then they get out and the cycle starts again.

Theft can cause significant emotional trauma and motoring offences can kill people. What definition of dangerous are you using here?

Yes I'd think theft and motor offences are dangerous

I'm looking at those convicted of Violence against the person offences from offender management statistics as published by the MOJ and HM prison and probation service as "dangerous". Do other criminals cause damage to individuals and the general population; no such thing as a victimless crime I suppose. There should be a cost/ benefit analysis over keeping individuals in prison or attempting to rehabilitate them in other ways.

There was a sad story on the BBC over a women who took abortion pills not realising how far along she was with a coercive partner, she got a couple of years. Dangerous? Does shoplifting cause emotional trauma, insurance fraud we all pay via higher prices but are we traumatised? There are a lot of people in prison who are poor, have limited options and are the product of chaotic upbringings. Possibly prison is not the most effective way to rehabilitate them. Obviously you need to look at individual cases but with cuts to mental health and drug treatment programmes you're only going to see increases to the prison population.

@bloodyeverlastinghell I don't disagree with everything you've written here though I think we need to look at prison as a motivation to NOT do something too and if we were to replace it with someone else for some prisoners, then it needs to be equally aversive. I don't think we can call offences against the person the only dangerous crime though.

So basically, legalise drug dealing, car theft, burglary, and all other non-violent crimes?

We need to put a lot more criminals in prison, and for longer. Life sentences should actually be life sentences. And prisons should actually be prisons, not holiday camps with playstations, a choice of food and other amenities. All provided for free.

So basically, legalise drug dealing, car theft, burglary, and all other non-violent crimes?

Thats an entirely new sentence and not at all what the poster was insinuating.

Nonsense.
No TV licence is a non imprisonable offence.
A handful of people may be in prison for not paying the fine for having no TV licence, and almost all of those/all of those will be serving time for a serious offence concurrently - it’s a convenient method of writing off outstanding fines so offenders have no debt to the courts when they are released