... alas. When there's so much to blog about. I'll just mention in passing that anyone looking to use the latest idiocy by the assorted bleeding hearts who make up Britain's four Children's Commissioners against Nu Lab should think again. For once I agree with Tony McNumpty about something when he describes the ideas of the English one as 'nonsense'.
The same applies to the last UN report on British children, used foolishly by some Tories as a stick to beat the Government with.
It serves the Government right, though. They appoint anti-prison pointy-heads like Anne Owers to inspect prisons then wonder why her reports are a litany of complaints. They do the same with the idiotic (or sinister) concept of the 'Children's Commissioner' then wonder why they get slapped around.
We're failing the kids alright. We could improve things by trying to create more two-parent families for starters - and stop subsidising bastardy. There are so many things. But we're not failing by banging too many bad boys up. We almost certainly don't lock enough up.
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7 comments:
Careful Laban or you'll be accused of demonising the Children's Commissioners.
At risk of plugging, one of the many interesting points that Inspector Gadget's
forthcoming book will raise is your last one, Laban - how can it be that we are locking too many juveniles up when actual police officers in the real world know that it is next to impossible to get any but the most seriously violent juveniles put away in the youth courts?
There's some sort of 'disconnect' going on here, that's for sure.
The name of Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust,should be added to the honour roll of 'anti prison pointy heads' headed up by Anne Owers.She is quoted today as saying, apropos Ms Owers' recent Egon Ronay guide entry to HMP Bulwood Hall, that 'the obsession with talking tough about foreign national prisoners has been at the expense of their welfare and public safety'. The poor dears!
At least Ms Lyon implicitly acknowledges that it's all been tough talk, and not action.
On the Bulwood Hall issue, Owers complains about the lack of a 'resettlement strategy' for its foreign prisoners.Perhaps McNumpty, in a rejoinder to this bilge, could run her complaint past his new Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini.it would appear that the new 'resettlement strategy' pursued by our italian partners vis a vis Romanian criminals consists solely of one way tickets to Bucharest.
"But we're not failing by banging too many bad boys up. We almost certainly don't lock enough up."
Come on Laban how can that be true? After all, as any Guardianista will tell you, the people who run the criminal justice system are afraid of the Daily Mail and constantly pander to its extremist readers.
Oh if there was only some way for Guardian readers to exert the same pull on the powers that be!
Laban,
While I agree that stopping the subsidy of bastardy would most likely result in a more stable society, I think you're on terribly difficult ground by saying we don't lock enough up. Without getting terribly Guardianista on you, the reason many of these youngsters are locked up is because of the erosion of cultural norms of which they are the product, not the cause. I would be quite happy to see pound for pound spending on better education, training and mentoring in the jails than on locking up many of the many poor buggers uin that category. Whilst some bad wee boys will always turn into bad wee men, I think the Christian spirit deamnds that we beleieve that young offenders can be reformed rather more effectively than they are at the moment - for instance, can a Catholic prisoner get confession whenever they want it? Might be a good start.
And if many of those we lock up were not admitted in the first place, perhaps our prisons might not be so full.
Laban,
While I agree that stopping the subsidy of bastardy would most likely result in a more stable society, I think you're on terribly difficult ground by saying we don't lock enough up. Without getting terribly Guardianista on you, the reason many of these youngsters are locked up is because of the erosion of cultural norms of which they are the product, not the cause. I would be quite happy to see pound for pound spending on better education, training and mentoring in the jails than on locking up many of the many poor buggers uin that category. Whilst some bad wee boys will always turn into bad wee men, I think the Christian spirit deamnds that we beleieve that young offenders can be reformed rather more effectively than they are at the moment - for instance, can a Catholic prisoner get confession whenever they want it? Might be a good start.
And if many of those we lock up were not admitted in the first place, perhaps our prisons might not be so full.
Martin,
I believe wholeheartedly in the possibility of reform for almost all sorts of criminal.
But part of their reform requires them to understand society's condemnation - and intolerance - of violence and vandalism against its members.
Prison should be sufficiently harsh (although not brutal) that they don't want to go back there. And they should feel that the chances of going back are high should they step out of line. Such realisations act as a counter-weight against the impulse to do wicked things. Prison works - if done right.
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