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LadyEllen -> RE: Escape jail by being a 'desperate' burgler only in the UK (3/12/2008 2:44:29 AM)
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We recently discussed prison reform for pages and pages here.
I broadly characterised offenders as being "mad", "sad" or "bad" in that discussion, with a view to proposing different treatments aimed at doing what can be done to maintain public safety.
In such a scheme, the "bad" - those who are professional criminals, dangerous and violent offenders who will remain a public threat for a long time regardless of how many days have elapsed within prison, get longer, even indefinite sentences, to maintain public safety.
The "mad" in my scheme - UK prisons are filled with psychiatric cases who because of their conditions come into conflict with the law at some stage, and there is nowhere else for them to be sent, would go to new psychiatric hospitals where they can be treated far more appropriately than in a prison.
But the bulk of crime as I saw it, was committed by the "sad"; those whose life circumstances are so hopeless that crime is their only viable path to survive, and/or to feed the drug habit they have developed to escape their circumstances.The only real solutions here are to provide a better socio-economic model which reduces the number of "sad" people by providing viable alternatives to crime. There must still be punishment but unless time in custody is used to improve their circumstances - including drug treatment, and there is a viable alternative life available for them outside the prison, they will simply return within months.
What if we reopened the psychiatric hospitals, and had a secure wing to each and a drugs rehab wing to each?
E
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