"Brian Begg-Robertson" wrote in message
news

"Jonathan Morris" wrote in message
ups.com...
Brian Begg-Robertson wrote:
PS A similar pair were locked up in Manchester not so long ago. It's a
bloody waste of money and, in the long term, turns bad lads worse.

There is not one scrap of evidence to prove that prison cuts crime rates.
NOT ONE SCRAP. Put the b*st*rds out on chain gangs 9-5 and have them
cleaning graffiti.of trains and walls themselves, but don't pretend that
prison is anything but writing off a young person for life.

Wrong, the crime rates have gone down significantly as the number of
prisoners has gone up. Its a little harder, though not impossible to
commit a crime when you are in prison.

Jack May wrote:
Wrong, the crime rates have gone down significantly as the number of
prisoners has gone up. Its a little harder, though not impossible to
commit a crime when you are in prison.

The problem we have, which can make it look like prison doesn't work,
is that it's so easy to get away with committing a crime these days.

It's not just the anti-social stuff, but the fact the police are
stretched, made to do 'visible policing' that takes them away from the
crime hotspots and puts them on shopping streets, outside Parliament
and train stations etc, rely on CSOs to deter the very people that know
they can stick their fingers up at someone not given the power to
arrest (as most aren't) or have had their job replaced by a camera that
catches a specific offender and ignores everything else.

It's not even easy to report a crime these days. The desk staff (often
completely civilian) are so disinterested that they effectively
encourage you to keep quiet, which only helps criminals get away with
even more. If I need to go to the police station, I have to do it in
office hours too! Finally, at night, some parts of Hertfordshire makes
do with one car that might have to travel from miles away to respond to
something. Couple a lack of police, and no desire to report a crime,
and is it any wonder that petty criminals advance themselves without
having to learn from 'someone on the inside'?

Jonathan

On 3 Sep 2006 03:52:24 -0700 someone who may be "jonmorris"
wrote this:-

It's not even easy to report a crime these days. The desk staff (often
completely civilian)

Unless things have changed recently, without my noticing it, police
officers are still civilians.

Of course some police officers do demonstrate a wish not to be
civilians. Prancing around with larger and larger guns, increasingly
masked and so on.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

David Hansen wrote:
Unless things have changed recently, without my noticing it, police
officers are still civilians.

The desk staff can have little or no training, giving completely
incorrect advice.

I even got grief from the police for not producing an MOT certificate
on a car that was just two years old! How many producers do they
normally deal with? Surely not everyone stopped has an old car?!

Jonathan