LET WOMEN PRISONERS GO FREE

Did you read that the Howard League for Penal Reform is calling for Government to shut down all women's prisons and cut the number of female prisoners from nearly 5,000 to just 100? The provocative demand by penal reformers comes as figures show more women are locked up in England and Wales than in any European nation other than Ukraine and Spain.

Well, maybe that's because they commit more crimes than those women in other European nations, maybe we prosecute female criminals more successfully than other European nations or maybe other European nations are just negligent in how they deal with female criminals? The fact that we have criminals behind bars is a good thing - though I do concede that the regimes are more like holiday camps.

The uberLiberals behind this report want to pretend that women prisoners suffer from every form of torture imaginable, and that NO woman should REALLY be in prison as it's just not appropriate. Now I do agree that the 10,000 Foreign nationals (all women?) should not be detained in our prisons once convicted of crimes. They should be deported straightaway - but I didn't catch the Howard league calling for that? In fact, the only thing that the Howard League concerns itself with is the feelings of criminals. I'm more concerned about the feelings of their victims, and as far as I am concerned we need a truly punitive prison regime which sends the message out to the criminal class that IF you commit crime and are a caught - you will pay a heavy price.

Comments

[aileen]

I don't think that gender should enter into it. I do think that prison should be reserved for the more serious offences. Apart from anything else, the cost is crippling.

I would like to see more done to consider alternatives that would be a deterent but which would also do more for the victims. Crimes of violence, where there is a danger to the public is where prison should feature.

[Peter Turner]

As I understand it we are supposed to support gender equality. It follows, therefore, that the Howard League are also in support of freeing the vast majority of male prisoners also.

[Sean Fear]

The interesting thing about most campaigns for equal treatment Peter, is that they demand equality when it suits them, and they demand special treatment when it suits them.

If a woman has committed an offence for which a man would be jailed, then equality before the law demands she should be jailed.

[Ross]

I'm pretty sure the Howard League want more or less all prisoners released male or female. Focusing on women prisoners today is merely one front in their overall struggle. It will probably be young offeders* next month.

* Young offenders as in 19 year old drug dealers who've cracked someones head open.

[Zendo Deb]

I don't understand what is happening in the UK. You folks have a crime problem - though most of the statistics I see are for Britain and Scotland. You seem dead set against doing anything that would solve it.

Yes, prisons are expensive. But if you are the one who is a victim of a violent crime in the morning, that is very expensive to you, to your family, to your job - since you will miss some work. The costs are real.

London now has a violent crime rate per 100,000 people that is roughly seven times that of New York. London and New York have roughly the same number of people (7 million and 8 million) and spend about the same amount on police. What London doesn't do is send criminals to jail. (New Yorkers are also permitted to defend themselves if attacked, but that is another story.)

How bad does it have to get before letting more criminals on the street would be seen to be a bad idea? While Labour is busy outlawing fox hunting, it is open season on the average citizen. I don't understand how politicians win elections under these circumstances. Law and Order is usually one of the topics that bring people out to the poles.

(Before you tell me that there is nothing to be done, read the referenced article, one of the reasons that NY has a lower crime rate that London is that the crime rate was driven down steeply. Two years ago, Chicago cut its murder rate by 25 or 30 percent, without spending one additional dollar on police personnel. Things can be done. Opening the doors of the prisons isn't one of them.)