Prisons Incentive

The most important thing needed in our prisons is education.

When one visits one of our prisons, as I have done on many occasions, you cannot help getting the impression that it's not only boring but it is an environment for developing what we in the Air Force would have called "bludgers". During their prison sentence, we have those people in our charge- and what we do with them is our responsibility. It does not take a genius to see that this mis-education or lack of education plays a big part in how most of them got there. Eventually they all come back out into the community and, under the present system, more than half of them return to gaol because they commit another crime after release. Apart from the blight to the welfare of the prisoner himself and his family, it costs us an awful lot of money to keep the prisoner in gaol year after year. In America, apparently, the prisons lobby makes money out of the system and favours more prisoners for longer. Here we have a chance to get value for our money by creating "incentive" in our gaols; providing the best education facilities, to encourage prisoners to work hard and study hard - with the incentive that, if they gain a diploma or some other distinction, part of their sentence will be remitted. Get them rehabilitated and out of prison as quickly as possible is what we are advocating. Getting prisoners employment after they get out is vital. We feel the problem of jobs for offenders will vanish with this system. "Early release men" will become favourably known as the most employable.

So, what's your view? Send me a note via my blog - see link, top right.

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