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.

@girlfriend44 "yes but what about savings, money they had in their bank account before they went inside."

Do you have any idea what the demographic of the prison population is? Those with any savings are going to be outriders/insignificant minority. Most prisoners would be means tested out of payment. Even UC allows people to keep £6k without it affecting entitlement and up to £15999 before entitlement stops. How many prisoners have even anywhere near £6k?!

Setting up a means testing system is not straightforward nor is it a cheap option to implement or maintain. The system would be inherently unfair on the very few who would have to contribute. They are punished by being incarcerated - prison isn't the starting point for punishment.

There would also be a disproportionate and negative impact on young men - particularly those from black backgrounds - who are over represented in the prison population when compared to the general public. Equally there would be a disproportionate and negative impact on women who tend to be imprisoned for much less serious crimes than their make counterparts.

It's going to blow your mind to find out that certain benefits can be paid in certain circumstances.

www.gov.uk/benefits-and-prison/universal-credit

Why? Well because it's far more beneficial to an ex offender to have secure housing to come out too and helps keep their family together - these things go a little way to help reducing reoffending.

Christ I've read some ignorant bollocks on MN but this takes the biscuit.

In fact everything you've said on this thread does, OP.

No worries in prison? Why don't you check in to one, OP? Have a little rest.

They should be made to work as free labour.
I doubt most of them have money.
People get raped in prison, beaten, bullied so they are hardly having the time of their lives.

What about them?

You’re actually saying you want a system that works on punishment and retribution nor punishment and rehabilitation and want to spend more money to make that viable and highly unlikely to recoup much in the way of costs.

it’s ridiculous.

It's a nice idea but impractical. As mentioned, the vast majority of prisoners have nothing for the state to seize. Those that do have assets will most likely be part of a family - bad enough your husband has gone to prison and his income with it, you now have to manage without his salary and yet feed, clothe and house your children and him.

Worse still is he has gone to prison for beating you / your mum / close friend up. Your few assets are stolen to feed and home the man who left your mum in hospital.

For the wealthy kingpin that I guess you have in mind - it gives them even more leverage over the asset poor.

Forgot to add, the admin costs I think would really painful for a ROI for the tax payer. The truly wealthy will hire a sharp accountants and pay nothing anyway.

Because we already have shit recidivism rates in this country, and people who have some money to get on their feet when they get out of prison, which won't be most of them anyway, are going to have more options to stay out of trouble than people who don't have any money to get on their feet because you've taken it all off them. It's just not a sensible idea OP.

You do realise that if such a thing could be implemented it would have been by now?

You cannot expect prisoners to do a job that takes away a paid opportunity from the unemployed/general workforce. It would increase unemployment as unscrupulous employers would take on offenders rather than pay a person.

Interesting article attached about why using offenders in the workplace is a bad idea (links to an idea put forward regarding potential Brexit related labour force shortfalls)

blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/prisoners-labour-shortages/

We've got a deep thinker here, ladies and gentlemen.

Haven't RTFT, but I was shocked when I found out that compensation payouts for wrongful arrest & imprisonment were reduced to pay for the cost to the state of keeping someone in prison (as in, we housed & fed you, so you owe us). Is this still the case?

The white collar criminals like solicitors put them to work doing pro bono legal aid for DV victims, accountants put them to work helping disabled and vulnerable with managing money and taxes

You want people who've been done for corruption and thieving to have access to vulnerable people's finances? Can nobody else see a possible issue with that?

That's not on if it's true

Seems legit to me.

No one is saying this you absolute dumb fuck.

omg so you think that people who have been in the news lately for murdering children like Star Hobsons partner etc and all the others shouldnt be there?

It's clear you have some comprehension or information processing issues OP so perhaps you need things spelled out more clearly. My question was why YOU think that the 8-% of non-violent women prisoners should be inside at all.

However, you don;t like that question, so chose to ignore it in favour of pretending that I think that violent people should not be imprisoned. Why you chose to invent that little fiction despite me not believing so, let alone saying so, it obviously a product of your difficulty with information processing.

www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/mar/14/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime

It used to happen, at least.

OP probably couldn't be bothered to research the fact that if you are lucky enough to be falsely imprisoned (e.g. the Birmingham 6) then you have to pay for your stay in prison out of your compensation.

Admittedly, that was before the law was changed to prevent compensation for wrongful imprisonment. Nowadays you'd probably have to pay back the cost of your stay at Her Majesties Pleasure.

Bold fail - first paragraph above is a quote from OP. Not me. Despite her determined Straw Man argument efforts, it's certainly not something I think 😅

Is this post testing out the latest potential government policy?

And if people do not pay, do you send them to prison for not paying their debts?

I actually agree with this.

OP, please don’t ever stand for election. You have no idea how society works.

Read the book A Bit of a Stretch. It will make even throat right wing fascist fell guilty for our terrible, broken system

You are right to question your family friend's truthfulness @Louise0701.

As a prison guard, they are either worryingly misinformed, or worryingly happy to invent goady 'facts'. Nobody pays a prisoner's rent or mortgage. They just have to lose their home.

Even if they have savings, they shouldn't have that taken too - prison OR a fine, not both! Otherwise you're just adding extra punishments.

And you've also stripped away their ability to support themselves when they get out. Great. What do they do whilst they try to find a job that'll take on an ex-con? Crime. You've left them no other option. None.