Thursday 23 February 2012

Guernsey Crime

Imagine a piece of thick carpet, twice as long as you are tall, and as wide as your shoe.
 

Got it?
 

Now, I’m going to ask you to just walk along it for £200.
 

Will you do that?
 

Let’s see. No risk and a high reward.
 

I think I might just go for the money.
 

Ok, now I’m going to sling that same carpet on a thin plank between scaffolding right at the top of the mast on the roundabout in Town.
 

Will you walk the carpet up there, during a high wind, for 10p?
 

Let me have a think again. Do I want to probably kill myself for 10p?
 

No thanks, if it’s all the same to you.
 

You see, it’s about risk and reward.
 

Now we can all guess the potential rewards for, say, drug dealing, but what about the risks when we are told that our prison is more of a hotel than a deterrent. That drugs are easier to obtain inside than out. That frequent offenders don’t mind going back inside.
 

Something is wrong here.
 

The risk reward ratio is out of kilter.
 

Prison is a place where we remove people who are acting against the best interests of our society. It is a place of punishment and should be a deterrent. People should fear going to prison.
 

Let’s make crime a high risk occupation.
 

Let’s start by stopping. Stopping the creature comforts. No TV, no free gym, no relaxation for most of the day.
 

By all means give the inmates the opportunity to address their addictions and life problems. Give the opportunity for re-education. 

But do not give the opportunity to treat it all as a holiday.
 

The lack of freedom is punishment enough.
 

No it isn’t, the reoffending rate should be sufficient argument against that.
 

It’s against our human rights.
 

You have offended against society. Your rights are diminished until such time as you have served your sentence and are fit to rejoin a civilised society.
 

These are damaged people, we need to mend them, not punish them.
 

Do both then.
 

Get the low risk prisoners working in the community and doing something of benefit. Sweeping the streets or cutting the hedgerows. Surely it is not beyond the wit of the clever people of this Island to find something useful to be done either outside or inside prison for these people with time on their hands.
 

I’m sure the prison officers might not take too kindly to the upset in their lives but on the other hand, they too might have some good ideas for improving the system and reducing reoffending rates.
 

They might also find ways to remove drugs from prison life. It’s supposed to be a secure environment. Make it so.
 

If someone goes in with a drug habit then they serve their sentence and stay until their addiction is cured.
 

Not just moved down to a different drug.
 

Cured.
 

Make it part of their sentence.
 

“You will go to prison for 6 months or until you are completely drug free for six weeks, whichever is the longer”.
 

Prone to violence? Again, serve the time and then stay there until you can prove that you have control of your emotions.
 

If you go to prison with a problem which will cause you to reoffend, then we don’t want to see you in society again until that problem is cured.
 

Why would you want proven offenders with those sort of problems rejoining society to just do the same thing again or something worse?
 

I know that most people want an easy life these days. Sorry, but prison doesn’t fall into this category. It’s supposed to be a hard life, a deterrent. Somewhere to stay out of.
 

If we want to deter something, we make the reward low and the risk high.
 

It’s that carpet thing again.



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