What’s even worst is that he already escaped from that prison before and they just put in there again! Unreal!

I believe that prisoners who are in for minor crimes, are the only ones who should be in open prison. or prisoners who have say three months left to serve of a long term sentence should be placed in an open prison.

Everyone in an open prison should ware a tag and if the leave the grounds the guards would then be notified instantly

Boot camp military style prison for those who wish to do less jail time and learn a lesson in life , no nonsense approach, works well in America and gets good results , prison in ireland is not a deterrent it is an occupational hazard and needs reforming now

In America, where 67% of those that go to prison are repeat offenders within three years? One of the last places we should be taking prison advice from is the United States. Their willingness to lock up people for mediocre crimes in many states is pretty disgraceful.

It works really badly in America, where they have more people in prison as a percentage of population than anywhere else – there are currently about 4,500 prisoners in jail here if we reached their rate we’d have well over 50,000.

They also top the charts on recidivism rate, though this is much harder to measure.

if you bothered to read the posting correctly you would have noticed that the military boot camp system was what i was referring to not the u.s. general prison system, a short sharp shoct to the system will always work and make offenders think again , the p.c. brigade will always go for the white glove approach , but just wait till you are robbed or seriously assaulted and see how long it takes before you change your mind, wake up

What’s the recidivism rate in Ireland? McDermott had 91 previous convictions. At least in the US the criminals are in jail.

@ Val – Recidivism was at about 49% after 3 years in Ireland in 2001 – also about 80% of prisoners left school before the age of 16.

@ Hugh – Cost of prisoners stands at 70k per year per person 2010 – they are interesting ideas about Boot Camps however the cost would be too prohibitive.

The fact is rates of imprisonment in Ireland have doubled in the last 15 years – and grown by over a factor of four since 1970. We have an imprisonment rate of about 100 per 100,000 citizens. The problem is that we are locking up lots of people who should never have been locked up. TV license non-payment, small scale welfare fraud, drug addicts who should be in treatment the list goes on.

Prisoners are not slaves for the state to do jobs that other people could be paid for doing.
You know how this would work in Ireland, politicians with ‘pull’ would get the slave gangs sent to certain areas to make them look ‘tough on crime’ and get certain jobs done for political credit.
Prisoners should be rehabilitated, given access to education, training and literacy. Much better for society in general.

At one stage prisoners did do that but cutbacks in the public service put paid to that.

:)

:))

Prison should be for rehabilitation, not prison. We live in a society which promotes crime, and by that I mean crime rates increase along with the kind of economic and social development we have in Ireland. Look at places which are slightly ahead of us, like the US and UK.

If we use prison as punishment and the only solution to crime then nothing will change. Education and equality will change Ireland for the better.

*punishment, not prison.

is marriage and prison not all the one anyway?

Hear Hear, that’s what you call perspective

Question to Sir Brian. Did you serve the 4 years or did you get early release on a longer term?

Ah yes, the informed person who chastises the uneducated masses trumpeting from their high moral throne complete with degree/masters in sociology/law etc related field in hand! Do me a favour… Come up with something that actually works before u start spewing that tripe

And Conor what is your solution to murders, rapist, child molesters, etc.? Ignore them? Tell them they are doing wrong and hope they change? no prison system is perfect but unless you have a better idea…..?

Conor words cannot describe my feelings towards you right now. Go and live in your utopian society so. You obviously have never been robbed by these poor people you speak of, i have twice and your feelings change believe me. ( the journal removed two comments i made about addicts yesterday so i have to treat them like royalty im afraid even though ive been robbed by them)

I don’t think that no prisons is the answer, some people are just evil or so damaged that they are pretty much irredeemable and need to be locked away. But neither is prison the answer to all of societies ills.

Justice for those who break the law should be either about reparation, punishment or rehabilitation. Wishing a worse fate on a person, or a whole group of people, because you have been a victim of crime at their hands strays very close to revenge, and revenge is a very poor basis for justice.

And before you say ‘wait till it happens to you’ – it has and then some. I’ve been burgled by addicts, twice, woke up with them in my room on the last occasion. I’ve had my car stolen, also twice. I am glad that in most of those cases the people were caught and jailed, but I don’t wish them ill generally. If I felt they’d come out of some kind of a treatment programme better equipped to lead normal lives, I’d greatly prefer that to be where they went rather than just being locked up.

fair play Katherine but i do wish them ill, all the ill in the world. I actually saw one guy a few years ago who had stolen my phone and been caught for it. I just seen him in the city center while on a night out. Im glad to say he looked a sorry sight he was about 7 stone and was about to drop. In the end justice comes for everyone even if the judges dont supply it nature will. Dont care what anyone thinks it made me feel even ;)

Typical do gooder rubbish. Your right crime doesn’t stop with punishment but neither should we stop punishing Scumbags. That Scumbag that escaped had 91 previous convictions how many chances did he get. Lock them up and throw away the key and make their life a misery while their in their

Hard to take in all replies, but I guess there’s no point in replying to those who are merely scornful and so on… Jason your anti-intellectualism or anti-educationalism nonwithstanding. I don’t have any such degrees, where I’m coming from with my opinion is grounded in a experiential view of people garnered from years of interactions with all types of folk in various contexts. Yes if your born poor or disadvantaged, from an abusive family or marginalised community, you’re more likely to commit crime. Doesn’t mean you can’t change though, and it’s not likely prison will change you for the better. You’re punished many times over for the sins of the society you were born into.

Jim and Katherine, I didn’t suggest no prisons, I clearly said that some people need to be kept seperate, those posing a danger to others. My point was, that the notion of punishment does not work… either as a deterrent or as a remedy to a person’s tendency to commit crimes.

If you think it does work, I suggest you go and do some actual research rather than pontificating and handing down sentences from the comfort of your armchairs, or from the selfish fearful viewpoint of the unforgiving victim. Your views in this are a danger to yourself and others.

I noticed a comment from this thread made by someone else has been deleted because it calls one other commenter ‘twisted’ for taking pleasure in another person’s ill.

this journal or someone in authority seems to think it’s alright for people commenting on it to wish ill on others who aren’t readers, but not to call readers names.

Double standards to keep customers?