To say that prisons should be abolished altogether?

[ThisAvidOchreEagle]

Rehabilitation and community justice models work better than locking people away. AIBU to think prisons are outdated and ineffective?

Definitely naive, disgenuous or stupid.

A lot of young adults are in jail for a whole lot of reasons, not least as it's better for them. Society needs to change dramatically economically and socially before doing away with prisons.

I would love to be in a society where peoples deep issues are noticed and helped at an early stage.

I dont think we are anywhere even close to not needing to lock some people away.
I do think that the prison system we have, doesn't work well. I think there are too many in prison when its not appropriate for them, and a lot of people who get let out and immediately go back to being a very real danger to society.

What’s the alternative? Where do we put the rapists and peadophiles whilst we are “rehabilitating” them? What happens when they reoffend because the first lot of rehabilitation didn’t take? Go talk to a parent who had their child snatched, raped and murdered. See what they tell you. Prisons need to be there for a bloody good reason.

Ansolutely not, the only way to protect the public long and short term from some of the prolific thieves, drink-drivers etc etc is to remove them from society.

If we jailed repeat thieves including drug-addicts who are repeat theives to fund their habits for serious spells (4+ years) instead of 3 months it would be far safer for the rest of us.

You can not imagine the loss of quality of life victims suffer from the sort of low-level crime that would be reduced by keeping repeat offenders off the street.

I would really like it if we built a lot more prisons.

There are a LOT of Labour Party minions on here testing the waters with odd questions at the moment. I saw one yesterday. The OP doesn’t come back. It’s getting a little ridiculous.

The questions being asked are truly terrifying. I mean sure Ian Huntley can be rehabilitated. So much so we’ll let him move in with OP and her kids.

Some people need to be off our streets: rapists, murderers, sex offenders, arsonists, paedophiles etc. We need secure places to put such men (it's mostly men) and prisons look like the place. More rehabilitation perhaps. I am not sure about restorative justice - I don't think that works.

What we actually need to do is make a massive investment as a society in supporting parents of babies and toddlers and a lot of other changes to get people off drugs and drink and into decent jobs. Not holding my breath on that one, though.

I'd quite like to see a trial of a system where anyone who supports the abolition of prisons agrees to sponsor the community rehabilitation of an offender for the duration of whatever term the custodial sentence would have been. They must house them (government funded) and work with offender rehabilitation organisations to help the offender become a productive member of society.

There would be conditions whereby if the person they were sponsoring reoffended during the rehab or for an agreed period after that the offender and sponsor had to both serve the original length of the sentence in custody. I think that would focus a few minds and we'd see how seriously people held such ultra liberal beliefs.

On the contrary, prisons are VERY effective - at keeping dangerous people away from us so that they cannot rape, murder and terrorise us any more.

Sort of- I don’t think anyone should be in prison for drugs or other non-violent offences, I even think a lot of violent criminals or murderers deserve intensive rehabilitation and a second chance. However rapists, serial killers, pedophiles and violent abusers need to be kept away from the public indefinitely.

Ultimately there have to be consequences and deterrents.

A perfect example is school behaviour. When I was a child if others stole, were violent, severely disrupted, etc., they were expelled. Look where keeping those who destroy the education of others has got us.

Rage bait

Hopefully you didn’t vote Labour as that’s exactly what’s been happening.

Yeah this.

I would say prison should be abolished for about 95% of female prisoners without any issues as long as they were supported in the community. Men, ha no.

There's also this idea that UK prisons are full of non-violent male offenders who are just inside for a misguided bit of robbery or fraud. Good hearted lads, love their mums but got in with the wrong crowd and need a guiding hand. No way is that true. Look at the reporting on child sex offences and assault / GBH. Many sentences are non-custodial. A violent offender on average is guilty of 4 offences before they get a custodial sentence. Rape has a conviction rate of 1% (and that's just reported rape). 100s of thousands of child abuse images gets community service - where they all get the chance to pick litter in your local playground.

My relative was left for dead and needed brain surgery after an attack by two men with a history of violent offending. Both men got non-custodial sentences.

We don't put enough men in prison IMO.

I couldn't decide whether the OP was advocating for that or letting the community deal with the criminal.

No. I think that non-custodial sentences are more appropriate and effective for many crimes, and should be developed and used more. BUT there will be always be violent and dangerous people who absolutely need to be locked up for the safety of everyone else. Would you really have liked to see Peter Sutclffe walking the streets? Ian Huntley? Axel Rudukana?

The thought of the community deciding never even crossed my mind. Can you imagine what that might look like for Levibell field? 😱

Lol, not without major investment in mental health (50 years ago many prisoners would be institutionalised and in some cases it feels criminal that they are criminalised), policing and in particular stopping the drug trade, drug services and in particular residential rehab (in our area it is impossible to get a place straight from heroin and users need to first transition to methadone which is even harder to detox from, then reduce, then wait at least a year for a rehab place and that's if they are offered one) sadly for many prison is the best option for drug and alcohol rehab and stabilisation from committing crime, housing including supported housing as without housing many people are so low that they don't see any other way to live than drugs, alcohol and crime.

Then there are those people who are entrenched in violent behaviours, often learnt from good old dad who even with prison do a lot of harm to a lot of people.

Is this meant to be serious topic....or are you having a laugh..

Pressed yanbu by accident. Don't be ridiculous.

When you say no one should be imprisoned for drugs are you talking about users or dealers?

Don't be daft.

You really want serial killers, rapists and child abusers to walk free because you think they can be 'rehabilitated'?

Criminals are put in prison as a punishment but also to protect the rest of us from their behaviour.

I would agree that more emphasis needs to be put on rehabilitation for people guilty of less serious crimes and that we should stop sending people to jail for not paying their TV licence or council tax or for protesting to highlight the threat of climate change, but dangerous criminals need to be safely put away.

You're right OP, lets set the murders, rapists, drug dealers and terrorists free. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? 🙄

Some people need to be locked up. Some of them for life so others can live in peace.