Scotland is about to get rid of prison for most crime and I am scared about the consequences

[CurdinHenry]

The purpose is to save money because they can't afford to divert cash to build new prisons.

They've found a couple of studies (interviews with 5 individual subjects) they claim support "restorative justice" instead.

This means no prison for most crimes (including if you sack off your community service for the crime). It means shoplifting, mugging, most violent and sexual offences will not result in prison so the only thing stopping the criminal is the social penalty they can expect or their own moral compass.

Punch a nurse, spit on a bus driver, steal a school kid's iPhone at knifepoint all on the same day. No prison.

I know you're probably thinking this is an exaggeration of the policy and I can understand why because it seems too absurd and mad. But it's happening later this year.

(Peter Murrell got 5 years 3 months so they probably think they've dodged that embarrassing parallel but some of their sex offenders got less than that - Jordan Linden etc).

And so he should have..Sorry for your loss.

This

Yes!

Jesus. Well, good luck with that. How long till every scumbag in the land gets the Megabus to Scotland?

It's already proving a bit of a problem thanks to our more generous benefits and housing arrangements. Scotland is not a great place to be a working person.

Your 5k doesn't include

Free housing, generous benefits, the cost of harm to those who have to live around the criminal (shoplifters cost the community thousands of pounds a month).

Prison is a bargain both in cash and social impact terms.

Clearly they are not getting rid of prison for all cases

Does prison work ? Does it effectively punish people and prevent them reoffending ? Or do they go in a petty thief and come out a hardened criminal with much greater skills at bypassing the justice system ?

we want a smaller prison population for the right reasons and if that is helping people become better and helping overcome the problems that have made them criminal then perhaps that would be a better approach.

hasn’t this worked very well in the Netherlands ?

Scotland fast becoming a lawless country.

The SNP have admitted spending over 600K of money specifically raised for the purpose of a second independence referendum. Sturgeon headed the fundraisers and assured people the money would be ring fenced. She lied when she told people the money wasn’t missing but it was obvious it was.

A clear case of fraud and yet no one has so much as seen a dock. The crime of Murrell is separate to the missing referendum money and only surfaced when the police started looking into the missing money. The SNP don’t want an enquiry or questions asked about why they defrauded the public.

Yeah it's funny how we haven't quite faced the fact that we're a corrupt state yet.

I didn't know that benefits were more generous. Obviously prescriptions/ university fees but that's not something that the average revolving door career criminal is forking out for/ aiming towards.

If there arent jobs for people who arent criminals, then there aren't going to be jobs for criminals, especially those disabled by dependency on alcohol or drugs.

Of course if people just can’t cope with earning a living it would be cheaper to just have a universal income available ?

It’s absolutely rotten to the core and needs overhauled. Nobody accountable and Sturgeon seemed to be running a dictatorship enabled by a weak CPS & Police Force. She needs to face trial immediately for the missing money and her attempts to cover it up. She was told the money was missing by her finance exec team but not only did she deny it, she used her position to smack down anyone who tried to get to the root of where the money was.

She is hoping this will just go away but many people are watching this closely as a blatant crime committed by the government cannot simply be swept under the carpet.

A forward slash means and/or.

The majority of prolific criminals already have enough to live on. They just want more. People in general want more.

This isn't Les Miserables, people aren't going to prison for stealing bread.

I would suggest that detention in a secure hospital where his issues are addressed and he gets let out when he realises that he isnt to drive any more

Firstly, I think you might be surprised to find that the number of prisoners is much lower than you think. There are fewer than 8000 people in prison in Scotland as it is.

Secondly, up to 20% if the prison population are being held on remand and actually haven’t been convicted of a crime at all.

Thirdly, 30% of people sent to prison in the UK go on to reoffend. (well, actually probably a much higher number reoffend, but 30% go on to be reconvicted) - that’s a huge percentage, so it clearly isn’t working.

Lastly, about 60% of prisoners in the UK cannot read above primary school level. 90% of UK prisoners have a mental health issue, substance abuse issue, and/or are neurodiverse. NINETY PERCENT. Surely if we focused the effort, budget and staffing on supporting these issues instead of just popping them in a box for a bit then letting them out to do it again, society as whole would be better off?

You don't seem to realise that crime doesn't equal mental illness.

Nor do you have any idea about sections of the MHA let alone hospital orders.

I know what a forward slash means. I’m still asking whether the poster means that sexual crimes shouldn’t merit a jail sentence.

Then you don't know what / means even though I just explained it means and or.

They said 'I don't think non-violent/sexual offenders should be in jail'

It means I don't think non-violent and or non-sexual offenders should be in jail.

Which means violent and sexual offenders should be in jail in their opinion.

Well I think it’s ambiguous and I would have written non-violent/non-sexual offenders.

Yeah there are a lot of top ups. Prescriptions are free for the same cohort in England, only working people pay.

Paid for by...? And who would do all the work that still needs done?

No they are not. Uni students pay for example.

An absolute maximum of about £150 a year. In Scotland it's "free" but tax is thousands higher.