During the Downing Street briefing with lobby hacks today the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman stated - as as been done through the media already - that prison capacity was under review by the home office. The PMOS was then asked whether Blair was in favour of re-introducing prison ships. His response suggests that Blair is not against such a move, "in terms of the detail of how prisons operated, [prison ships were] a matter for the Home Office and the Prison Service."
The question is where would we put them? I doubt you could put them east of the Thames barrier. I imagine a return of the prison hulks down that way would cause a horrendous recation. So where? Somewhere off the coast in the North Sea perhaps? If we put them in international waters would we be able to write off their carbon emmissions from our books? Yes, that's a flippant question, but seriously, would the introduction of prison ships sit well with environmental policy?
2 comments:
It sounds like a step backwards to the days when prisoners were shipped off to the colonies. I think we need to look to other countries for best practise, I don't know the answer about our prisons, the problems are so varied and vast.
Also, our alternatives to prison are not working, particularly electronic tagging as a large proportion of criminals remove them. And how effective is community service as a further deterent?
Just build more prisons.
Its not very difficult to work out is it.
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