17-05-17, 05:44 PM
Quote:Prison is also supposed to be a deterrent. If poor, deprived little Johnny Crackhead can expect an easy ride after terrorising his neighbourhood, he isn't likely to change his ways, is he?
I sure don’t fancy prison.
Talking about your Johnny Crackhead, I remember reading of one long running experimental prison rehabilitation programme. Basically, first time offenders like Johnny Crackhead were offered to be part of a fast track rehabilitation programme. In exchange for active participation and good behaviour their sentence could be significantly reduced. But first the victim had to agree to this and also to taking part. The idea was that young or first time offenders like Johnny would have to face up to their crimes. There were various aspects to the scheme, but one key part was several sessions sitting down face to face with the victim of whatever their crime was.
There was also a TV documentary about said scheme. The effect on the offender was startling. Nor was it easy viewing. I can’t remember the precise stats for the experiment, but it was something in the order of those whom participated in it were 3 or 4 times less likely to re-offend then those who didn’t take part. It was, in other words, fantastically successful.
As far as I know most of these schemes have been ditched.
As we can see on this thread rehabilitation of offenders is not popular and frankly not a vote winner.
Hang em, beat em, let them rot etc is much more popular. So brain dead banging on about being tough on crime and talking pish aboot punishing criminals etc, rather than rehabilitating them, wins votes. But the fact is a brutal prison system that has no interests in rehabilitation breeds hardened criminals and subsequently we all suffer.