Jail terms - Sheffield Star story.

[strikerPaul]

http://www.thestar.co.uk:80/news/local/axeman_sparked_11_day_manhunt_after_cutting_wife_s_neck_with_blade_1_3489396

 

How can cutting someone's throat with a blade only result in 30 months in jail? Especially cowardly attacks like the one tailed above.

 

I know it's an expensive business keeping prisoners, rumoured to be around £50k a year, but even so, with such light sentences, there is no deterrent at all to stop people like Mr Bowling doing what they do?

 

USA style prisons may make people think twice?

[BettyBooHoo!]

Don't think he actually cut her throat with it but the whole ordeal was bad enough regardless.

One thing I don't mind having my hard earned taxes spent on is keeping violent individuals like this man locked up and away from the rest of us.

[JFKvsNixon]

USA style prisons may make people think twice?

 

I'd always thought that the USA have a really high crime rate?

[Swan_Vesta]

I'd always thought that the USA have a really high crime rate?

 

Violent crime in the states is down, however, over a third of prisoners in the US are convicted of drug offences.

[Cavegirl]

I'd always thought that the USA have a really high crime rate?

 

Both the US and UK prison populations have risen very sharply since the move to privatisation. The US started the prison privatisation process in the early 1980's (after the 'war on drugs' led to prison over-population) and it's interesting to view the prison population figures with this date in mind.

 

Between 1920 and 1979 the prison population rose steadily from around 100,000 prisoners to just under 500,000 prisoners. However, after privatisation, between 1980 and 1990 the numbers spiked from under 500,000 to 1.3 million. Twenty years later it has continued to spike with over 2.2 million people now incarcerated. That's over 743 people per 100,000.

 

England was the first European country to begin to privatise prisons and we now have the highest ratio of people imprisoned per capita in Europe at over 150 per 100,000. In 1980 we had about 40,000 inmates, but since privatisation we now imprison more than 90,000 people. We actually imprison people more often than the US, but we use shorter jail terms so the numbers are skewed. The 2008 crash has effected prison numbers because large companies such as Serco and GEO can't find the capital to build prisons at such a high rate. In fact the UK tax payer has ended up bailing out many private companies in order to keep these PPI contracts going (to the tune of £200 billion).

 

Traditional crime rates have largely dropped in the UK, but the number of laws has dramatically increased since 1980 and people are imprisoned today for crimes that would have been considered minor misdemeanors before 1980. 10% of UK prisoners are also ex-soldiers that are suffering PTSD and 1 in 3 women in prison are believed to be suffering from depression after abuse.

 

That is the price we've paid for putting profit ahead of punishment in the prison system and the ongoing price we pay for using prisons instead of hospitals to contain those that can't adjust to society.

[callippo]

overall crime rate in US has fallen by a third in the past 20 years http://www.p360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=237