4mo ago

Three new prisons to be built starting this year, UK justice secretary announces

www.theguardian.com

Jail time for recalled offenders to be limited to free up prison places

9 comments

More interested in building prisons than schools and hospitals. They’re showing us who they are.
- They also inherited a health system that's full to bursting. I don't think 100% of the people in prison right now are a serious threat to the public, and building new prisons can induce demand so we end up locking more people away.
- Carrots and sticks.
  The carrots society expects are under-provided, so removal can't be used as a persuader.
  So we end up spending money on more sticks.
- If they announced they were building new schools and hospitals, someone would quite rightly point out the dire prison situation and complain that Labour isn't taking governance seriously.
  Comments like yours are proof that Labour just can't do anything without moaning and resistance from Joe Public. This is yet another Tory catastrophe that Labour are forced to deal with.
  
  Sorry, no, let’s not pretend that this is a Tory issue. RAAC’s fatal flaw has been understood since the late 1980s. Labour had 13 years pretending to be for the NHS and Education x3. Did they rebuild the flawed schools and hospitals? Fuck did they. All UK governments have been a useless shower.
Good. Our prisons have been full for a while, and Conservatives built fuck all. They even scrapped plans for a new prison.
I live less than 1km from HMP Northumberland and I can happily say that it's seemingly getting some upgrades too, as is our closest hospital.
Quite refreshing to see things being built again, and having a bit more long-term planning.
I know people here appear to have the opinion that having a legal system and prisons = fascism, but that's an absurd and extremist opinion.
If someone rapes/kills/grievously assaults someone, or whatever, there has to be prison spaces available for them. Overcrowding in prisons has led to worse outcomes - re-offending, radicalisation, lack of prisoner and guard safety, etc. We need to build.
Trying to outfascist the fascists, are we?
- Building prisons is not fascist. The world needs prisons, and we've not been building any despite the population increasing and existing prisons being full.

9 comments