Lock your garden sheds, tie down anything of value, hide the car keys, bolt both front and back doors of your home, don't use you mobile phone in public, and always look behind you to see if you're being followed.
Yes, it's come around very quickly. Labour's wonderful idea of letting dangerous criminals out of prison early is here; and 700 of the darlings were released yesterday.
The misguided thinking behind this move is to 'release prison space' for others. So, lets have a simple poll to see who agrees with them.
To cope with the UK's huge amount of criminals, should we....
A. Let our dangerous prisoners out early?
B. Build more prisons?
C. Use some of the space in all the unused prisons around the country (list below).
I know where I stand on this, but what do YOU think? I don't think there's any question that crime will increase with another 700 criminals on the streets; even the Minister in charge of Prisons has predicted that! So do we simply have to be prepared, keep a loaded gun by our beds, buy a Pit Bull, install CCTV and noisy alarms; or just accept that fact that there are far more criminals out on the streets, and just let them get on with it.
N.B. Just as a matter of interest, these (below) are just some of the empty prisons in the UK. OK, the cells may not have four-poster-beds, internet, and all-mod-cons, but with a few extra keys they would keep the criminals safely locked-up.
Dartmoor isn't mentioned, but it recently held about the same number of prisoners as have recently been released
HM Prison Ashwell B, Belle Vue Gaol, HM Prison Blundeston, Bocardo Prison,Buckingham Old Gaol, HM Prison Bullwood Hall, HM Prison Camp Hill, HM Prison Canterbury, Carlisle Citadel, Dalton Castle Cumbria, Derby Gaol, Devizes County House of Corrections, HM Prison Dorchester, Everton Lock-Up, HM Prison Finnamore Wood, HM Prison Gloucester, Halton Castle, Hexham Old Gaol, HM Prison Lancaster, HM Prison Northeye, HM Prison Oxford, etc, etc.
Plus dozens of others that I can't be bothered to mention, but you can look them all up on 'Defunct prisons in the United Kingdom Prisons in England'
Many of those are probably.modern housing estates now.
ReplyDeleteI think plenty of them are still useable; Dartmoor certainly is.
DeleteMaybe we've got this the wrong way round - use Dartmoor to house the entire MP cohort (650 should fit nicely) on starvation rations until they show some evidence of actually listening and acting on the wishes of the electorate?
ReplyDeleteGood thinking! Dartmoor would help concentrate their minds. And they wouldn't be released early!
DeleteI think Dartmoor was closed due to dangerous levels of radon gas, so don’t think that one is fit for use.
ReplyDeleteDon’t think the government has much option. Take some solace in the fact that the plan is only to early release 6,000, a lot less than the 10,000 let out by Sunak.
I really couldn't care less about Radon Gas; I want people to feel safe on the streets and in their homes. I also don't care who lets them out, criminals are better behind bars.
DeleteIt appears that the government were driven to this action - averting the possibility of a "No Vacancies" situation whereby there would be no room left for new prisoners. Those released yesterday had served 33% of their sentences as opposed to the usual 40% threshold for good behaviour. My heart goes out to hard-pressed probation officers who are charged with monitoring the newly released prisoners.
ReplyDeleteI feel for the Police too. They work hard to get these people locked-up, then along come our politicians to let them all out again, only to carry on with their lives of crime.
DeleteI have seen a video where a newly released prisoner was asked how he felt about getting out early. He said he was going to start stealing again. Lock everything up.
ReplyDeleteI read about that too. He was only saying what all the others were thinking.
DeleteI'm sorry to say that I think that a big reason why we have less space for people in prison is that we have too few Prison Officers.
ReplyDeleteIt's a horrible job. Perhaps the prisoners should be locked inside their cells more?
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