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.

Drink and Drugs

What percentage of crime in Guernsey is driven by drink or drugs?

20-25%?

No, that is probably the figure for those crimes not related to drink or drugs.

Guernsey has a problem and doesn’t seem to be doing an awful lot about it.

Our border control keeps telling us of record seizures but drugs still remain freely available not only in our streets but in our prison too. And you’ve only to look at our High Street on a Saturday night to see some of the problems caused by excessive drinking.

What we need are new tough laws!

No, what we need is a change of attitude to drink and drugs and effective policing of existing laws.

We’ve already started to tackle the problems of smoking but have yet to see the damage to health which levels of increased drinking will lead to. Alcohol is a poison and you cannot keep pouring large quantities of poison into your system without consequence.

The thing is though is that we all enjoy a drink. A couple of beers or a nice glass or two of wine never did anyone any harm. We all need to let our hair down occasionally. No harm in that is there?

Some people are the same with drugs. The occasional puff does no harm. A tab or two makes for a good evening.

But where do you draw the line? How do you control adults who don’t see the problem. So what if I go over the top now and again? Why shouldn’t I have a good time? Who are you to dictate my lifestyle?

It’s about the type of society we want in Guernsey. Do we want to abandon our capital on a Saturday night? Do we want our courts full of drunken excuses for appalling behaviour? Do we want our hospital filled with self induced accidents and emergencies?

Being drunk and disorderly is a crime.

Taking drugs is a crime.

Enforce the law. Extend the law.

If someone is caught driving under the influence, we take away their “right” to drive for a while. So, if someone is convicted of a drink related offence, could we take away their “right” to drink in a public place. Probably not.

How about “Three strikes and you’re out”? Forget the sob stories and the “really trying to turn my life around” defences. Mandatory prison sentences for repeat offenders.

Yes, it is harsh. It is meant to be.

You have a problem with drink or drugs and you are not effectively dealing with it. Society will help you but it will not allow you to push your problem on other people. If you cannot or will not sort it out yourself, then we will sort it out for you.

I can already hear the outcry from the Human rights lobby. What I won’t hear is the low conversations in the places of power from those with a big stake in maximising their profits from “the entertainment industry”. Profits which cost the taxpayer in police, court, and hospital time let alone the wider social service problems.

But remember, we are talking about repeat offenders. Not the occasional “letting your hair down” party which got a bit out of control. Not the “I didn’t realise that mixing drink and drugs would have this effect” idiot. We’re talking about the individuals who get themselves arrested on three separate occasions for drink or drug related offenses. The one’s who don’t care about the rest of us.

Let’s take these individuals and put them somewhere where they can be offered solutions to their problems. But also somewhere uncomfortable enough that they really won’t want to come back. It’s called prison but not as we know it. 

But that’s for another article.