"Why Have Prisons ?" Redux

An afterthought to (and some additional information on) the Today programme’s three-item (one, two, three) ‘don’t lock them up’ fest of last Thursday, noted by David here :

Two points. One is the BBC double-whammy reporting – that not only do Barnardo’s think that too many young criminals are being locked up, but the Parliamentary Justice Committee think the same thing – which was reported as a separate item on Radio 5 news that day.

Alas, the BBC failed to tell us who’s at the top of the list giving evidence to the Parliamentary Justice Committee. You wouldn’t be too surprised to know that it’s – wait for it – Barnardo’s.

In fact the list of organisations giving evidence to the committee (mostly ‘fake charities’, the bulk of whose income comes from the taxpayer – Barnardo’s for example closed its last children’s home in 1989) is one to warm a social worker’s heart, and the evidence presented (here) by the assorted pointy-heads deeply depressing. It’s worth a read if you want to know why crime is so high in the UK.

But I digress. The thrust of the evidence presented by Barnardos, and through them by the Justice Committee, is that too many young criminals are being jailed. Why too many ? Because – wait for it – the judges are too harsh. There are government guidelines – which the judges ignore and go their own punitive way. Were they to keep to the guidelines fewer young criminals would be in jail (according to the evidence presented over 97% of young criminals appearing in court are NOT sent down – I cannot find the figures, but I would be very surprised if the majority of young criminals ever got as far as an actual court appearance).

A small thought experiment. Imagine – even if you live in Islington – that you go out onto the streets of your neighbourhood and ask, say, a hundred people at random if they think judges are too harsh on young criminals. How many do you think would agree that they were ? Perhaps the BBC should have headed their story :

“Judges too tough, say charities and MPs”

Even the Today programme might have trouble with that spin, but the BBC are happy to present (albeit obliquely) this thesis with a straight face.

A small quote may be in order here, from the first chapter of Steven Pinker’s excellent work The Blank Slate.

“The problem is not just that these claims are preposterous but that they did not acknowledge they were saying things that common sense might call into question. This is the mentality of a cult, in which fantastical beliefs are flaunted as a proof of one’s piety. That mentality cannot coexist with an esteem for the truth …”

WHY HAVE PRISONS?

Last week, the government released Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs from prison on “compassionate” grounds. It now looks like the government is preparing to release the Lockerbie bomber, Al-Megrahi from prison on “compassionate” grounds so he can return to Libya and die there. I was wondering why we bother with prisons at all?

On the BBC this morning, Barnardos were in attack mode making claims about all the “children” that we send to prison. This has been allocated not one, not two, but THREE slots on Today so maximum PR for the left wing campaign group Barnardos. Meanwhile the BBC reports that Dame Anne Owers (a favourite) has claimed that illegal immigrants and foreign prisoners are failing to be removed from the UK because escort staff are “intimidating” them. Presumably these thuggish staff will need to be sent on sensitivity courses to learn how to be more respectful to convicts and illegal immigrants.

The recurring BBC meme is that prison does not work.

BEHIND BARS

Ann Owers, Chief Inspector of Prisons, is a BBC favourite. Her liberal values resonate with the State Broadcaster and she was on this morning criticising Cookham Wood Young Offenders institute. For good value, universal Francis Crooke from the Howard League for Penal Abolition was also given a scathing quote on the “brutality” of the prison regime. The BBC meme is always the same – if we must send young criminals to Prison then the objective should be education. The idea that thugs get punished is just simply unacceptable to the liberal elite and when it’s not the police that are being criticised, it is prison staff. The concept that young criminals are responsible for their own deprivation of liberty is just not on the radar. Maybe we should close on Prisons and turn them into early learning centres?

Only On The BBC …

There’s concern about the number of prisoners released early from prison on license who go on to kill or commit serious crime while still under ‘supervision’ :

Criminals on probation committed more than 1,000 serious crimes over the last two years, including nearly one murder a week in England and Wales.

The government figures give details of the 1,167 offences committed by people being supervised by probation officers.

The total included 94 murders, 105 rapes and 43 arson attacks.

Only a BBC producer could decide that the best person to interview on the topic is someone who believes the problem to be, not that criminals are being released early from prison, but that they were sent there in the first place.

As I’ve pointed out before, Frances Crook of the Howard League For The Abolition of Punishment must be able to find her way to the Today studios blindfold by now.