prison

[woolleysheep]

how much does it cost to keep a person in prison- i read of a person who had fraudently claimed £30,000 and were sentenced to two years. if it costs £1000 per week to punish them it would mean spending £20,000,can we not find a less costly way to punish people.

[d9f1c7]

Cost is irrelvant. It costs fortune to keep work shy layabouts but we still do it. There are no doubt less costly ways to "punish" people but I doubt in reality they would be actual "punishments", our jails are only slight inconveniences as it is. There are of course a lot cheaper ways of jailing people but heaven forbid we go down that route, we'd have a handwringing revolution on our hands!

[cathfromsaron]

what does it cost in property and lives to keep these people free?

prisons are worth every penny, although they could do more rehab IMHO!

[woolleysheep]

what jobs are there for the so called "layabouts"technology has done away with jobs that a lot of people are capable of doing- yours could be the next one someone is planning to eliminate

[jake-the-peg]

It depends on what you count

Staff and running costs only?

The cost of building prisons?

The costs of Prison transport?

Depending on what you want the nswer to be you can come up with a number of "correct" answers.

The costs of this is why we use methods like electronic tagging - why pay for a prison when you can make the persons own home a prison?

Of course this is only possible when they have a suitable home.

Funny how people think that some "costs are irrelevant" when it's things like Prisons or the military but not when it's things like the health service or social security.

Tells you more about their personal priorties than actually answering your question I think!

[cathfromsaron]

ok, yes flogging and hanging is cheaper ... happy now JTP?

[craft1948]

If it costs £1000 per week, and they've been sentenced to 104 weeks, how do you arrive at £20,000?

[jake-the-peg]

Well we could always cut the prison population by 10% by sending all the ex-servicemen - sorry ex-heroes back to the armed services couldn't we?

[woolleysheep]

sorry craft 1948 well spotted, makes it more costly then

[youngmafbog]

We could send some round your house first JTP.

Less costly would be to FM it out to Thailand or Turkey, they know how to run a prison and I am sure could do it cheaper.

[Old_Geezer]

You can punish them for less easily, but what you should be doing is rehabilitating them. At some point they go back into society, you want them to be a productive member not someone who sees society as the enemy or as an easy target. This sort of thing costs.