75ZT Community

. . . this country is:

One of the killers of schoolboy Damilola Taylor has been recalled to jail for a second time just 16 days after being released, sources said today.

Ricky Preddie, who was jailed for eight years in 2006 for the manslaughter of the 10-year-old, was recalled to prison last night for breaching the terms of his licence.

He had only been free for 16 days after being released from Pentonville Prison in north London on January 25.

Preddie was originally released in September 2010 but sent back to jail last March for breaking the conditions of his licence.

Why was he given only 8 years in the first place?

Why was he let out after only 4 years in 2010?

Why was he let again 16 days ago?

Why the hell don't we lock him up and throw away the key?

Oh dear TF, oh dear, you just do not understand, his pet goldfish died when he was two and been traumatised which has lead to what he did in later life and society needs to assist him integrating back in to society and everyone needs to be nice to him. Unfortunately, the goldfish keeps coming back in to his mind sending him off the rails.

Alternatively, if the death penalty had not been abolished he would have had a rope around hs neck and he would not be any more of a problem.

Ahh the death penalty - even better than locking him up and throwing away the key.

Tourerfogey wrote:Ahh the death penalty - even better than locking him up and throwing away the key.

Can't do that, goldfish welfare people will sue the Government aka taxpayer.

Here's my two pennies worth (which for the record, is my own and not of any organisation that I may - or may not - be associated with )

It's my personal view that the prison system in this country (and that of many other) is flawed. Fundamentally I believe locking someone up for doing wrong is perfectly fine - If a person wishes to deprive someone of their life/livelihood/welfare/property/liberty (delete as appropriate) and if the State declares that the offence is worthy of removing that persons liberty by imprisoning them then I fully support that action.

What I don't believe to be right however is that all 'offenders' are thrown in together, as it were, within the prison system. I know persons are assessed on an individual basis as to what institute they are imprisoned in but at the end of the day they all mix together and it's unfortunate but true that people influence each other. Some of these influences may be good but I dare say most come out of the prison system worse than when they went in and so lead to repeat or further offences.

In an ideal world I suppose you would have one-on-one imprisonment. That is, one prisoner per building with just prison staff to look after them and 'socialise with'. Yet this does impose it's own problems (not least with Human Rights) and the fact that we would require far more prison staff than we currently have to fulfil these one-on-one roles (As a plus side this could lead to more job vacancies for our struggling economy but I guess a role in the prison service as a social/rehabilitation worker may not be everyone's cup of tea, anyway I digress...) and we would also need a lot more 'houses' for these people... Hmmm.

Thankfully, and largely due to luck, I have no experience of being banged up. But a family member has. Well, sort of. The family member was a civilian lecturer in a prison and tells what can only be called horror stories of what goes on inside.
Contrary to popular belief, life behind bars is far from easy and most 'guests' live in sheer terror. At least until they learn the system and come to terms with it. Then of course they are ruined for ever. Many people say that prison should be extremely harsh and not such a 'holiday home', and that terms should be much longer. Say, like USA jails. I say that doesn't seem to work. If the objective is anything other than retribution/punishment (not that I think there is necessarily anything wrong with that) then what counts must be what works. The USA has a truly scary recidivist rate and we really don't want ours any worse than it is do we? So brutality combined with donkey's years doesn't seem to have much to recommend it.

I think the way to go is firstly to serve the term that is handed down. In full, with no side issues such as limp-wristed lefties pleading mercy. Parole possible, but only after two thirds of term served with no infraction of any kind, and parole boards containing no probation officers, social workers or career politicians. Oh, and the victims, or surviving families of, included.
Secondly, concentrate on prison discipline so that gratuitous cruelty and inhumane treatment of prisoners by other prisoners stops. Smuggling of contraband and phones into jails only continues with the 'blind eye' of officialdom and lax supervision and causes most of the terror culture. Visits from families on a regular basis only promotes 'traffic' mules and does not do anything to reinforce the 'loss of liberty' component. Incidentally, all prison staff should be subject to the same search regimen as visitors, both going in and coming out. Visits should be limited to one every six months and then only with the 'infraction' rule as above. All that means of course is that no legal aid smart***** lawyers can mount proxy cases on the back of human rights violations.
Well' that's a start anyway.