A point of view

[jumpy]

Why Prisons Fail

For UKers you can listen to the article.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b015cvct



For the rest of you, here's the article in print
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15196517


Says much of what I think of the prison system here, its failures, its lack of vision, its confused intent stated by politicians.
Like much of the country I live in today, there's a lot of lip service to grand ideals, but when it comes to shelling out the cash for something that might actually do some real good, all of a sudden everyone is patting their pockets with that look of faux embarrassment - "Sorry, I seem to have left my wallet at home today..."

meh.

[kraznyi_oktjabr]

Of course, we aren't quite at the levels enjoyed by our closest allies, those prime exponents of the civilising mission the United States, whose extensive gulag now houses, it is estimated, more African American men than were enslaved immediately prior to their Civil War - but we're getting there.

LOL

[jumpy]

Too many questions perhaps?
'Tis only a point of view after all, albeit one that doesn't gloss over how some things really are.

Predominantly it is a statement of how things are in the UK, not abroad... I'd like it to not be misconstrued as such, however certain slight passages indicate.

The ideas of punishment versus rehabilitation are tricky. In the main, I come down on the side of rehabilitation 9 out of 10 times. That 1 in 10 is the individual from whom society must be safeguarded against.

What use is prison if it does nothing to ameliorate offending? Except for the time when the prisoner is banged up.
It is well known that contact with the prison system is less likely to prevent crime than it is to teach its graduates how to be better criminals, not just because of who they associate with in prison, but because of what they do not learn about knowledge or behaviour with their time inside.