What is the solution to UK prisons running out of room?

[Prettytom]

4 hours ago, Al Bundy said:

I didn't realise it was a help for insomnia, I've had some throughout my life and it makes me too high to sleep, drowsy maybe!

 

I also suffer with insomnia and it completely wrecks the way I function, I've had it most of my adult life unfortunately.

 

Zopliclone does work but I've not had them for years but it's got to the point at present that I am seeing my doctor to get me a prescription for some more. All the herbal, Melatonin products don't even make me drowsy.

I thought that the melatonin products were to keep you asleep, not to get you to sleep.

 

Which might explain why they don’t make you drowsy.

[geared]

13 hours ago, The_DADDY said:

Tbf hackey I used it for insomnia and headaches many years ago.

It did more good for me than all the meds the doctor had me on. I don't miss it though. It stinks awful and seems to linger forever.

 

  

14 hours ago, Al Bundy said:

I didn't realise it was a help for insomnia, I've had some throughout my life and it makes me too high to sleep, drowsy maybe!

 

I also suffer with insomnia and it completely wrecks the way I function, I've had it most of my adult life unfortunately.

 

Zopliclone does work but I've not had them for years but it's got to the point at present that I am seeing my doctor to get me a prescription for some more. All the herbal, Melatonin products don't even make me drowsy.

 

If it were legalised you'd have access to gummies and other edibles.  Measured quantities of THC/CBD meaning you could properly gauge what you need to get you to sleep.

 

No smelly smoke, no guess work.  Eat one 30-60 minutes before bed and sleep well.

[Al Bundy]

19 minutes ago, geared said:

 

  

 

If it were legalised you'd have access to gummies and other edibles.  Measured quantities of THC/CBD meaning you could properly gauge what you need to get you to sleep.

 

No smelly smoke, no guess work.  Eat one 30-60 minutes before bed and sleep well.

I have the 10mg melatonin gummies but they neither get me to sleep or keep me asleep!!

[Al Bundy]

10 hours ago, Prettytom said:

I thought that the melatonin products were to keep you asleep, not to get you to sleep.

 

Which might explain why they don’t make you drowsy.

They don't keep me asleep at all.  I get off ok but an hour later I am awake again!

[Delbow]

As I was saying about Zopiclone

[Al Bundy]

1 hour ago, Delbow said:

As I was saying about Zopiclone

Be interesting to know how many they took.

 

I do know that they became prescription only a few years ago in Eastern Europe as folk were using them to get high!!

[ECCOnoob]

On 29/06/2024 at 07:22, geared said:

 

  

 

If it were legalised you'd have access to gummies and other edibles.  Measured quantities of THC/CBD meaning you could properly gauge what you need to get you to sleep.

 

No smelly smoke, no guess work.  Eat one 30-60 minutes before bed and sleep well.

 

There is already a range of legalised CBD products available. You can get them in most health food shops. You can get them online. You can even get them in supermarkets. 

 

They're all there controlled and regulated and without the hallucinogenic parts.  If the earlier poser is really needing help against  sleep deprivation, why are they not using such products or speaking to their doctors and going through the official channels?

 

All seems a bit of a flimsy excuse for them just to smoke weed IMO.  

[Delbow]

The Guardian often publishes well-meaning guff, but based on my experiences of supporting people with substance misuse problems and navigating the health and justice systems they often come into contact with, I would say everything in this article is accurate. As a society, we are choosing to spend much more money on ineffective responses than we could on effective solutions. It is mad that we are doing this.

[*_ash_*]

On 28/06/2024 at 03:04, melthebell said:

people havent really feared prison.....ever?, we used to send people to Australia did we see no crime? we had the death penalty did we see a reduction in crime? we had hard labour did we see no crime? we had overcrowded old victorian prisons did we see no crime?

 

On 28/06/2024 at 03:50, melthebell said:

they come over here taking our jobs, our women, selling our drugs and taking up our prison spaces *angrilly shakes fist*

 

On 28/06/2024 at 00:00, melthebell said:

KILL EM ALL

You know, with thousands of posts you have made, you just always post things like this. 

You never ever posted an answer to a question, or post your potential solutions. 

 

You'd be a great politician...

 

melt, What is the solution to UK prisons running out of room?

 

 

 

[peak4]

1 hour ago, *_ash_* said:

You know, with thousands of posts you have made, you just always post things like this. 

You never ever posted an answer to a question, or post your potential solutions. 

You'd be a great politician...

melt, What is the solution to UK prisons running out of room?

I did post a bit on this thread a few pages back, but to expand;

The most obvious is to work to stop people offending in the first place; The disparity, and expanding  gap, twixt rich and poor doesn't help either; Who's been in power for the past 14 years?
More youth workers and better facilities; coincidentally one of the first casualties of austerity.
One of the best deterrents isn't the punishment, but the fear and likelihood of getting caught; The whole criminal justice system is currently on its knees, again as a result of austerity.
Not enough, and under resourced, police, who when they do catch some miscreant and present them to the court system, have to wait several years before a trial and have justice served.
The court/judicial system is in a state of impending collapse.
We have a huge re-offending rate amongst those imprisoned, particularly those on short sentences.

Lack of mental health support for those in gaol, as well as little effort put into rehabilitation; once again a product of austerity.
It's been discussed several times on this forum; here's a few copy/pastes from my previous posts; some of the content may be repeated, hope all the links still work OK, but they were genuine and verifiable at the time(s) posted originally

 

Figures I came across whilst writing on a different thread; from a variety of sources, but mainly World Prison Brief
Norway       Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population) 52      reoffending rate within 2 years of release about 20%

UK   E&W  Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population) 145     reoffending rate within 1 year of release about 50% 60% in 2 years

UK   Scot    Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population) 143

UK   N.I.      Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population) 97
USA              Prison population rate (per 100,000 of national population) 531    reoffending rate seems to vary state to state from 62% down to 21%

 

Most mental health issues of course do not present any dangers to third parties, despite the sometimes devastating affect on those suffering from them.
The proportion within the prison estate is likely to be far higher, with often little formal psychiatric support; also of course with few resources available/dedicated to rehabilitation.
Sending folk to prison, with little mental health support, but exposing them to other convicted and often violent criminals, also often with mental health and anger issues themselves, seem to be fraught with danger.
On release that are likely to receive little support, as austerity cuts have reduced community mental health services,  which is likely why they were imprisoned in the first place.
What could possibly go wrong......................
House of Commons Justice Committee Mental health in prison

Our reoffending rate here is appalling compared to many other countries; there's lots written about it, but here's one.
Hint, it has little to do with the availability of TVs, or the absence of hard labour.
Nina Hodžić: The sad irony of prisons in the UK
In the UK, around 60% of released inmates go on to reoffend within a two-year period. But in Norway the reoffending rate is only 20% after two years.
Partly as a result, Norway has almost three times fewer inmates than the UK, with prisons operating at a capacity of 73%, as opposed to 104% in England and Wales. 

 

There will always be the need to imprison some people for the protection of the general public, and some of those perhaps indefinitely.
Contained within it there are several links such as World Prison Brief, which compared penal systems worldwide,  from that, a link to the Norwegian Correctional Service and from there to an EU Document
 Prisons and Community Sanctions and Measures which also compares differing penal systems

 

I would suggest commissioning more private prisons isn't a long term solution; we need to stop filling the ones we already have; also improving the quality of the prison estate, and  properly resourcing those who are in a position to help reduce re-offending, by offering support for prisoners during their sentence, and very importantly, post release.
We even dabbled with privatising probation services, and look how that turned out. Probation services to return to public control after Grayling disasters  Guardian

PRISONS WORK BETTER IN PUBLIC HANDS We Own It  See the Key Facts as the end of the posted link
We rely on prisons to help keep us safe. But cuts and privatisation have put our prisons under increasing pressure over recent decades, putting both inmates and staff in danger.