Punishments do not appear to be fitting the crimes
ON Monday, this week, there was another horrible mass stabbing. This time the target was a group of youngsters attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event in Southport, Merseyside.
The grief and despair of the victims’ families and friends must be truly awful and I wager many people’s thoughts and prayers are with them.
For some years now, there has been a frightening rise in violent assaults with knives, acid, and in many cases, guns too.
A rise in violent crimes of assaults, muggings and murder is bad enough, but it seems all crimes are rising, with robbery, thefts, housebreaking and shoplifting at unprecedented levels.
Sadly, in many cases, particularly with theft and housebreaking, the police and justice system seem to have given up tackling it, leaving people to claim on their insurance.
While financial compensation may be available from an insurance policy, that does very little to address the mental scars and traumas from being robbed or one’s home or shop ransacked.
Decent, hardworking and lawabiding people in a country as advanced as the UK don’t expect too much from their leaders and society.
However, it’s probably fair to say they want to walk the streets safely, they want to enjoy family and community activities in peace, and they want their precious possessions kept safe.
Sadly, most people will have been a victim of crime at least once in recent years.
When I studied law at school, I was told that justice is about deterrent, punishment and rehabilitation, in that order.
Yet, for many years it seems, the deterrent and punishment element is taking an increasing back seat to so-called rehabilitation.
Why, for example, are criminals automatically allowed to be released after serving just half of their original sentence?
The fact is, crooks don’t fear being caught, only the consequences of being caught, and it seems current sentencing guidelines don’t appear to be instilling much of a deterrence.
Indeed, the typical fines and punishments given to offenders for things such as illegal drug taking, vandalism, shoplifting, graffiti or assault is anywhere between £50 to £150 depending on the circumstances and any prior offending.
We get bigger fines for not paying the Tyne Tunnel Toll.
So much for being “tough on crime and the causes of crime”.
Indeed, many career criminals consider the risks of being caught worth it, given the relative financial benefits their criminal actions can yield.
So much for the adage that “crime doesn’t pay”.
It’s even worse when we look at the more serious crimes.
As mentioned above, each year violent crime is rising at frightening levels.
We abolished the death penalty for murder in 1969 and replaced it with a life sentence.
Sadly, the courts and parole boards have released too many killers on licence who have gone on to kill again.
Indeed, over the past decade, 129 criminals who were released have been given second life sentences for further offences.
It’s high time the courts and parole boards took more responsibility for their actions and resisted letting killers free early.
Frankly, until the justice system issues sentences with a greater punitive and deterrent element, crime and the cost of crime will sadly continue to rise.
Therefore, it was a tad disappointing that the new Labour government justice minister, Shabana Mahmood, announced the intention to release thousands of prisoners early to address an apparent collapse of the prison system.
Under her plan, some prisoners will be released after they have served just 40% of their sentence in England and Wales, rather than the current 50%.
Ms Mahmood said she expected the first batch of prisoners released in September to be in the low thousands, with further releases over the next 18 months.
Well, here we go, a further reduction in the deterrent element of our justice system.
Given that many experts believe if you clamp down on petty crime it reduces the instances of major crime, it does seem strange.
It is true our prisons are getting close to being full and often the cost of keeping prisoners in jail is frequently used as a reason why imprisonment is often the last resort when considering punishments.
According to Government data, the cost of keeping around 78,680 offenders in our 117 prisons is around £38billion a year, or £43,213 per prisoner.
Scary figures? Also, given the recent announcement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves that there is seemingly a £20bn hole in the government’s finances, it’s unlikely there will be any serious investment in new prisons.
But perhaps there should be, because according to another Government report, the cost of crime is a massive £60bn per year.
That’s the equivalent of imprisoning 1,385,265 offenders.
So, according to the maths, locking up crooks is very cost-effective, given that in prison they can’t commit crimes and thus increase the cost of crime.
Food for thought.
“While financial compensation may be available from an insurance policy, that does little to address the mental scars and traumas