Today sees the launch of a new online resource and campaign organisation called PrisonWorks.org. The site, and it's content, is the brainchild of two bloggers, Alan Drew and John East. The site was conceived in early 2006 after a challenge was set by John for anyone to prove to him that prison didn't work. Alan took on the challenge and, after extensive research, found not only his view changing, but that he couldn't find sufficient argument to play devil's advocate. Interestingly, this is not the first time I have known of a physicist that has taken on a challenge and had their view changed by it, in the other case, a former acquaintance was challenged to find a logical argument for eating meat, he's been a vegetarian ever since.Amusing anecdotes aside though, Alan and John work on this site has been brilliant. Britain is currently at a tipping point when it comes to prisons, overcrowding is becoming a serious problem and the current Government appears to be toying withthe idea of more non-custodial sentencing to solve the problem. However, the elegant, and utterly realistic, argument that putting people in prison reduces crime, is not in vogue these days and it ought to be. Hopefully this site, and the articles and links within it, will help to bring realistic policy formulation back on the agenda. If we want to reduce crime then we need to punish criminals by using the prison system. If that means we build more prisons, then we build more prisons.
2 comments:
Thanks for the support!
I am very supportive of this new site. I like your post but overcrowding isn't "becoming a problem". It is and has been a root cause of failure for years. See the first 17 recommendations of Zahid Mubarek's Report into the 2000 prison murder which are all about cell sharing. When Labour came to power there were 60,000 inmates and this figure is now 80,000 with no new prisons. As reoffending rates hit all-time highs it is clear that because NuLabour doesn't believe in prison as a form of punishment it fails to rehabilatate inmates. Classic right-wing rhetoric and left-wing implementation which makes the prisons crisis wholly typical of this rabble.
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