Prisoners to be called 'men' and cells 'rooms' under new guidelines.

Soldato
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Don't these countries with 'lax prisons' also have some of the lowest re-offending rates in the world and some of the best justice systems?

Please take your sensible commentary back to Speakers Corner. This is GD and we're trying to be offended here!

Yeah why would you want to prevent re-offending when you can punish them instead!!
 
Soldato
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Don't these countries with 'lax prisons' also have some of the lowest re-offending rates in the world and some of the best justice systems?

Yes, but as you will shortly be informed, they should all have been hung after their trial anyway.

I don't see the issue to be honest, they were talking on breakfast about allowing more familial access etc with the rationale being that a prison sentence damages a family, in particular the children as much as it does the offender. On top of that, building the family links apparently helps reduce re-offending, gives them a reason to sort their lives out.
 
Soldato
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I think the key is the environment and society you release the offender back into and this may be an important cultural difference between here and Norway.

If we release all offenders back into villages in the lake district and find them jobs it might work. Send them back to drug ridden urban estates and they will be back in no time.
 
Soldato
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I know its easy to get on the whole 'It looks like a bloody hotel room while vets on the street... blah blah blah' but surely if it returns results, these sort of facilities save money by massively reducing rate which these people re-offend?

Some people go in for something minor and then end up costing the system a ton because of the way we label criminals after they do their time, as well as the way they change because of how they do their time.

Sorry that i don't buy into the OP sensationalist posts that because we call cells - rooms and prisoners - people, our prisoners will live in luxury. If a change in what we call them is enough to make them come out the other side more of a human call them whatever works for all I care!
 
Soldato
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I know its easy to get on the whole 'It looks like a bloody hotel room while vets on the street... blah blah blah' but surely if it returns results, these sort of facilities save money by massively reducing rate which these people re-offend?

Some people go in for something minor and then end up costing the system a ton because of the way we label criminals after they do their time, as well as the way they change because of how they do their time.

Sorry that i don't buy into the OP sensationalist posts that because we call cells - rooms and prisoners - people, our prisoners will live in luxury. If a change in what we call them is enough to make them come out the other side more of a human call them whatever works for all I care!

This is a big thing in social care, how you label people has a big impact on how they view themselves. There's always a massive effort to move away from a disability based approach to a strengths based approach because it means you focus on empowering people to focus on what they can do instead of what they can't, it helps build self esteem and get's people setting goals and planning for the future rather than accepting their current circumstances as the new norm. It also helps reduce institutionalisation.
 
Soldato
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I think the key is the environment and society you release the offender back into and this may be an important cultural difference between here and Norway.

That was immediately obvious to me. Some people prefer to essentially continue their apologist mindset by blaming the government and society for criminals committing crimes rather than accept that people are responsible for their own actions, and negative actions should have negative consequences.
 
Soldato
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That was immediately obvious to me. Some people prefer to essentially continue their apologist mindset by blaming the government and society for criminals committing crimes rather than accept that people are responsible for their own actions, and negative actions should have negative consequences.

And if taking a lighter touch approach can be demonstrated to result in lower re-offending rates? What then? Regardless of terminology prison is never going to be a pleasant experience for most people.

If this type of approach has led to improvements in re-offending in other Countries then surely adapting the approach and looking to make society safer by reducing recidivist crime is worth certain sections of society not feeling like they've had their pound of flesh.
 
Soldato
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Negative actions do have negative consequences and the same could be said about how you treat prisoners and how they might reform.

We are not talking about kitting them out with a hotel room, despite that ridiculous link to a 'Luxury prison', we are talking about using different words. I don't know how people could be against this point if it might work?

Whats the worse that might happen? :rolleyes:
 

SPG

SPG

Soldato
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Please take your sensible commentary back to Speakers Corner. This is GD and we're trying to be offended here!

Absolutely none if this factual and evidence based politics here thankyou very much. Its the Tory way or the highway
 
Soldato
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You seem to think calling it a cell does. Why is it any more unlikely that calling it a room would have the same effect?

Labels are very powerful things. They are not so powerful that calling a prison a hotel may make prisoners think they are on holiday but labels can certainly cause people to think of themselves as criminals and turn to crime after a second chance.

You didn't answer my question of whether you think it may increase crime.
 
Caporegime
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I like this line from wikipedia:

"In his autobiography Undesirables, British criminal Colin Blaney has claimed that gangs of English thieves target the nation on account of the perception that its prisons are relatively comfortable compared to those of other countries." Those nice Norwegian prisons really seem to deter criminals!
 
Caporegime
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Labels are very powerful things. They are not so powerful that calling a prison a hotel may make prisoners think they are on holiday but labels can certainly cause people to think of themselves as criminals and turn to crime after a second chance.

You didn't answer my question of whether you think it may increase crime.

I have no idea of whether it may increase crime or not. I do however see it as being a potential outcome - something you haven't obviously considered based upon your post of 'whats the worst that could happen?'
 
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