Thursday, August 03, 2006

Comment Is Irresistable

I told you I was getting lazy. Frances Crook of the Howard League For The Abolition Of Punishment argues in the Guardian that we whould release all women prisoners. In order to reduce crime. Laban drops the odd comment in.

10 comments:

Serf said...

Your reply to Helen, the liberal was a classic. Short, sharp & sweet.

Anonymous said...

The reply to the bleeding heart Helen gave me a good chuckle. Though I rather think she set herself up for the obvious riposte when she states;

"If prison works so well, how come the rate of recisivism(sic) is so high?"

Well Helen it's simple, we are obviously not keeping these bozos locked up for long enough.

Praguetory said...

Crook's proposal is an attempt to take the path of least resistance to abolition. Their July press release on "gulags" could be written by a simpleton. One sentence they complain about the government building into a penal crisis, the next sentence they're complaining about overcrowding. You'll never stop these sorts chipping away. What I want to know is how they can make a living doing it. I want to know where this organisation derives its funding?

Martin said...

Laban,

As well as the drunken, drugged and mad, the prison population's distaff side contains more than its fair share of evil bitches - a reflection on feminism, and feminist penology, that might give Ms. Crook pause for thought.

Laban said...

Steve T - it's called humour (although I haven't noticed them calling for punishment of any kind - ever).

You'll be pleased to know, Steve, that this blog has an entire post devoted to you :

http://ukcommentators.blogspot.com/2005/05/give-prisoners-internet.html

Laban said...

try again - add this to the above

give-prisoners-internet.html

Anonymous said...

Several posters over on The Croydonian http://www.croydonian.blogspot.com responded to this by noting that abolishing prison for women would mean they could continue their careers in crime once they'd had a break doing "community service" like cleaning grafitti, etc. With no fear of imprisonment, this would lead to every mule and every fence in Britain being a female. They'd be the most sought-after employees in Britain. If caught, no threat of imprisonment. Just a little "community service" job for a few hours a day, and then continue with their real work.

Serf said...

You might disagree with them - but don't misrepresent them.

They might not see things in the same way, but Laban's joke is a fair representation of what their cause is really about. They don't believe in punishment.

Anonymous said...

Frances Crook (b.1951) became Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform in England in 1986, prior to which she worked for Amnesty International. Having read English at the University of Liverpool, she trained as a teacher.

She was a Labour Party councillor in the London Borough of Brent for a number of years, and was awarded the Freedom of the City of London.

Frances lives in Cambridge with her daughter.


Wiki shows that she is a right-on woman

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