Prison - does it or doesn’t it work?
July 24, 2008
Well the debate rages on. Michael Howard had his slogan in the 1990s that ‘prison works’ and admittedly since then, with the rapid expansion of prisons and lengthening of sentences, continued by Labour, crime has fallen.
But I knew it wasn’t just about that, despite an article by Daniel Finklestein to the contrary the other day.
I knew that during periods of econmic prosperity crime always falls. More people have jobs, more people have money - why commit crime? Similarly I knew that Labour gave herion addicts methodone subscriptions to keep them off crime and it had been hailed as the secret underlying cause behind the huge drop in crime under this government (still falling - 9% last year).
So I was pleased to see Johann Hari, who provided the information on the methodone subscription argument, comment on Danny Finklestein’s article with his own ideas. He’s actually a fierce critic of the governments policy on prisons and the justice system and I tend to agree.
Have a look at both articles, see which you believe. The truth often lies in the middle with these things and perhaps it does here. Certainly for some criminals they should be locked away for as long as possible. But I don’t truly believe that locking up mentally ill people in a jail for years on end is going to rehabilitate them, which is ultimately the point of a prison.
Crime down, MRSA down, soldier compensation up and police red-tape down - A good day for govt!
July 17, 2008
Police-recorded crime is down by a whopping 9% in one year.
The government has all but hit it’s target (yes it does happen) of halving MRSA infections.
Compensation for army troops has been doubled.
And police red-tape is due to be dramatically slashed under the governments new Green Paper, a move that has been welcomed by the police forces.
Jacqui Smith has also offered a job as ‘bureaucracy champion’ to one of her fiercist critics over police pay, Jan Berry, who is said to be ‘flattered’ at the offer and is seriously looking at taking it. A shrewd move from Smith, who shows a willingness to work with critics and also a keeness to get and keep the police on-side.
So all in all it’s a rare day of positive news for the government. Crime down, MRSA down, red-tape down. A potent combination but we need a few more days like this if we’re to claw back some opinion ratings in the polls.
Updates: It keeps getting better. Drink and drug use among teens continues to fall.
Keep them coming: Tom Watson announces an ICT carbon-footprint slashing plan, parts of which would alone save nearly 120,000 tonnes of CO2.
Oh Dear oh dear, David Cameron is at it again. Scare mongering, accusing the government of telling porkies, before coming out with a whopper of his own.
Today he has claimed that, under Labour, violent crime has doubled and gun crime has ‘nearly doubled’ and drug crime is also up.
Given that he is using the British Crime Survey for sources, it is quite easy to look this one up, and see that he is telling porkies of whopping great big proportions.
David Cameron and his ‘Broken Society’
April 16, 2008
No-one would deny that at any time, society is dealing with crime of one sort or another. But David Cameron’s ‘Broken Society’ surely does not match the reality. He makes speeches saying things like ‘we do not always have to expect crime to go up’ when of course crime has been falling for years now, and at this moment we’re less likely to be a victim of crime than at any point in the last 25 years.
