Most offenders return to crime...

[Loosehead]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11692852
So have attempts at Rehab etc failed? time to rack up the harshness of punishements and make them just that rather than attempts at rehab? Any new ideas to stop this vicious circle of crime? The softly softly approach has clearly failed.

[NazNomad]

Re-introduce corporal and captal punishment.

[NazNomad]

gah, capital*

[sandyRoe]

The problem is that most criminals don't have the skills to break out of the circle of crime, arrest, and punishment. Most are illiterate, have no employment skills, and can't see their life other than as it is. Harsher punishments don't work.

[Loosehead]

neither do non punishments sandy, at least if we lock them up for longer they are out of circulation for longer.

[Gromit]

Did you read past the headline?

The first sentence says

// Three-quarters of offenders return to crime regardless of whether they are jailed or given community sentences, according to the Ministry of Justice. //

That means there is no difference in outcome if the individual goes to prison or not. The only difference is that if they go to prison for a year, they cost the tax payer£31,000.

The prisons are full, and to keep prisoners in longer would mean building more but we don't have the money, and in any case, that would take several years to accomplish.

Personally, I think prisons should be for people to might cause me physical harm and should not be on the streets. Prisons should not be for TV licence evaders, fine dodgers and drug addicts.

[jno]

yes, the real point is why are we wasting time and money locking people up when it makes no difference? Putting people out of circulation, at our expense, doesn't seem to be the answer. I'd sooner see them back at work so that their taxes can help to pay for the running of society.

[chelle7272]

When i worked on the govt new deal for communities programme (large sums of regeneration funding) two cities who had received funds had the idea that instead of putting addicts in prison, they would send them to ta service in the other city, where they could access support, carry out any community service, but did not have the same contacts or 'friends' around them, to help them come off the drugs and not be dragged back down by the people they associate with. red taep got in the way of this proposal though.

[1rovert]

Exterminate! Exterminate!

[Zeuhl]

I think there is a false presupposition in the question that somehow we have tried rehabilitation.

In fact, the necessary resources have never been put into rehab. As usual, a half baked effort has been experimented with here and there.

Our over crowded and under staffed penal system and probation service can't offer proper rehab and it seems unlikely any serious effort will be properly funded in the forseeable future.

So we'll just keep paying the price for circulating the same people round the system in the usual old short-termist way.
.