Justice? What's that?
Mar. 5th, 2008 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueSo, we have, at the moment, a justice system that's 'suffering a bit'.
We have too many people in prison, for our prison population. Fines are fundamentally 'unfair', because they only take in relative ability to pay in the repayment constraints.
ASBOs are almost having the opposite effect of what was intended, in that they're being used as a badge of honour. And our justice system suffers from 'cushy deal' syndrome - there's just too much feeling that 'prison is too soft' and 'community service is too easy'.
But at the same time, the purpose of a legal system is multiple - first to serve justice, but also to impede and restrict rates of crimes - either by removing 'dangerous' elements from society, or by reducing re-offending rates.
So clearly, our legal system is in need of reform.
For the first step, is the prison system. Is it punishment, or is it re-education? Well, there's very definitely a correlation between education, and re-offending rates. Both due to 'more thought' and 'more to lose'.
So what if our prison system had a couple of additional constraints - achieving a designated standard of education, would be a prerequisite in your parole hearing. The level required, being proportionate to the magnitude of the offense.
In the rare case of people being removed as a 'danger to society' then clearly that's a psychiatric assessment, and should be 'indefinite, but with annual review'.
And maybe increase the fixed term, but essentially allow people to 'buy their way out' through learning (well, past minimum time).
For lesser offenses, prison time doesn't help at all. Indeed, jail time can seen to be negative - removing someone from society, isolating them, requires them to 're-integrate' afterwards.
Fines too, suffer from disprortionate utility of cash - I can shrug off a £60 speeding ticket, because that's a few hours overtime. But someone who's not earning so well, might not even be able to pay the fine. But it doesn't really serve as a deterrant.
So how about rather than our current system of fines, we introduce a system of public flogging. This serves both fairness - a lash cares not about the size of your wallet, and also means societal integration is a non issue.
It also provides a very definite 'negative constraint', which will actually serve _better_ than a fine and a few points on my license - you're held up as a negative example, and serve as an object lesson.
It can also serve as restorative justice, to have the 'victim' offer the final blow. I don't think anyone would argue that someone 'got off lightly' in that regard.
Oh, and it's cheap to administer too.
We have too many people in prison, for our prison population. Fines are fundamentally 'unfair', because they only take in relative ability to pay in the repayment constraints.
ASBOs are almost having the opposite effect of what was intended, in that they're being used as a badge of honour. And our justice system suffers from 'cushy deal' syndrome - there's just too much feeling that 'prison is too soft' and 'community service is too easy'.
But at the same time, the purpose of a legal system is multiple - first to serve justice, but also to impede and restrict rates of crimes - either by removing 'dangerous' elements from society, or by reducing re-offending rates.
So clearly, our legal system is in need of reform.
For the first step, is the prison system. Is it punishment, or is it re-education? Well, there's very definitely a correlation between education, and re-offending rates. Both due to 'more thought' and 'more to lose'.
So what if our prison system had a couple of additional constraints - achieving a designated standard of education, would be a prerequisite in your parole hearing. The level required, being proportionate to the magnitude of the offense.
In the rare case of people being removed as a 'danger to society' then clearly that's a psychiatric assessment, and should be 'indefinite, but with annual review'.
And maybe increase the fixed term, but essentially allow people to 'buy their way out' through learning (well, past minimum time).
For lesser offenses, prison time doesn't help at all. Indeed, jail time can seen to be negative - removing someone from society, isolating them, requires them to 're-integrate' afterwards.
Fines too, suffer from disprortionate utility of cash - I can shrug off a £60 speeding ticket, because that's a few hours overtime. But someone who's not earning so well, might not even be able to pay the fine. But it doesn't really serve as a deterrant.
So how about rather than our current system of fines, we introduce a system of public flogging. This serves both fairness - a lash cares not about the size of your wallet, and also means societal integration is a non issue.
It also provides a very definite 'negative constraint', which will actually serve _better_ than a fine and a few points on my license - you're held up as a negative example, and serve as an object lesson.
It can also serve as restorative justice, to have the 'victim' offer the final blow. I don't think anyone would argue that someone 'got off lightly' in that regard.
Oh, and it's cheap to administer too.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 10:44 pm (UTC)Bear in mind that quite a few "Hard Nut" kids give themselves impressive looking scars just to improve their "Hard Man" image already?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 11:14 pm (UTC)