Or rather Blair’s Home Office minister Hazel Blears is working on a scheme for uniformed “Community Punishment” squads to work on public schemes rather than go to prison.
The closest punishment anywhere in the world is the system of chain gangs used to dig drains and so on in the USA. The only difference will be that the young offenders will not be chained together.
The whole idea is a response to the pblic perception that Blair is not tough enough on crime. This is at a time when the rate of imprisonment is climbing so that the number per 100,000 population is one of the highest in Europe. Lat week a county police chief criticised “lenient” prison sentencs even though studies show the public when given details of cases would impose shorter prison terms than those the actual sentences.
Blair’s own son was taken to a police station after being found drunk and rolling on the ground in central London so we must presume he is an expert of parenting and the “yob culture”. Having finally realised that the public do not like being assaulted by drunken youths, Tony is trying to show he cares about it. Instead of challenging the behaviour by proper education and parenting support, he has obviously come to the conclusion that the answer is the public humilliation of young people.
Now restorative community punishment – things like making young people clear up and care for their local environment – can be a creative way of re-engaging young people. The “chain gang” proposal is being slammed by professionals involved. Chris Stanley, head of policy for the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, told Channel 4 News that it could cause vigilante action.”There’s no evidence from anywhere that this type of thing has any deterrent effect,” he said.
The next proposal I presume will be for stocks to be set up outside local shopping malls. That way the stores can recover their losses by selling their rotting fruit to throw at shoplifters.