6) SOME PEOPLE THINK PUNISHMENT IS A DIRTY WORD. MR BLAIR SAYS SHOPLIFTERS SHOULD GET OFF WITH A FINE - THE SAME PENALTY YOU GET FOR PARKING ON A YELLOW LINE. I DON’T.
Wrong – And seriously alarming: By trivialising the issue, scoring political points, Howard weakens the case for anyone, particularly himself from actually doing something socially responsible to help people who may just be in difficulties. What does he suggest we give a convicted shoplifter who has a mental instability; six months, a year, life? (At least that way they’ll not do it again according to point 4). Nowhere and in no statement he has made does Howard suggest finding out why? Why? Because that costs too much money and takes up too much time to get a result that will get him elected again. At the Co-operation to Reduce Recidivism Workshop in Helsinki it was reported, by the UK delegation, that reconviction rates of prisoners on release in the UK have remained consistently and unacceptably high for many years and the present situation labelled as a phenomenon known as the "revolving prison door". The likelihood concerning rates of crime was reported as follows:
Care as child 13 times more likely to commit crime
School exclusion 20 times more likely
Unemployed 12 times more likely
(Keep those figures in mind as you read down this file; they prove interesting, particularly in 1994.)
I quote; "The situation is even worse in the case of short-term (sentence of less than 12 months) prisoners." (Those people who were convicted for shoplifting for the first time that Howard seems to want to lock up.) "This group represents the largest proportion of prison admissions annually, and has the highest rates of adult reconviction. They also have amongst the highest levels of social exclusion and need. Their relatively short period in prison means they have received little input on offending behaviour or resettlement whilst in prison. In addition, if over 21 they are not subject to probation supervision on release. There is a real risk that prison might make factors associated with re-offending worse. Many return to prison during the same or following years."
Now, the case in point for Howard's "get tough" campaign that will probably figure in the press in the near future will be the welcoming back to the Tory fold of the serial criminal, Lord Archer, a man seemingly unable to tell truth from fiction. He will be treated sympathetically if he decided to ask to rejoin the party, to get his old job back, just like all those other criminals that Howard has such plans for when they get out after a stretch.
Prison Works? A report stated that, “While prison removes from circulation certain categories of violent offender, and addresses justified popular demands for the punishment of heinous crimes, in most cases it provides a publicly funded higher education in offending. The experience of the last five years, prisons crowded to bursting point, alongside a rise in violence and social dislocation offer evidence that radical alternatives to prison are urgently needed. We are alarmed in particular by the high proportion imprisoned for non-violent and often trivial offences, such as non-payment of fines, and we reject unequivocally the return of prison-ships and the shackling of women prisoners giving birth.” The figures speak for themselves:
75% of prisoners were unemployed before they went inside
46% had drink problems
35% had drug problems
33% had been in care
28% had chronic housing problems
15% had mental disorders
10% had tried to commit suicide
(1994 figures) Those ones I mentioned above
And these were the figures known by Howard when he was Home Secretary, yet he still continued to preach the vengeance theory of social reform, bless his little cotton socks.
So, where do you think Howard figures in all of this? Well, if you forget everything else in the previous 5 points below and the other 6 to come, remember ONE THING. Howard and the government he supported and served in laid out the foundation stones for this present-day outcome on the bedrock of criminality in our society when they destroyed communities and their livelihoods, when they overcrowded prisons, cut educational time, and preached the bang ’em up and punishment mantras, all the while trying to coerce the public into believing that prison works. All it did was alienate of whole section of our community as Howard, through lack of intellect, lack of interest and gross ineptitude swept the problem under the carpet; we’re reaping the benefit of those doctrines now. Then, through successive years of Tory government, Thatcher, Howard and their divisive policies cemented those foundation stones together to build the edifice we gaze upon today......the edifice that Howard seems to think we believe he had no part in building.
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