Having just finished reading “A bit of a stretch ,by Chris Atkins ” my feeling that the current prison system is inadequate was confirmed.
Appalling buildings ,chronic underfunding, lack of staff (who themselves are underpaid and undertrained),and little support after release leads to a high rate of reconviction.
The system is not working .
Recently a TV programme gave me an idea . The show is called “Pawn Stars” about a three generational family that run a large pawn shop in America . The grandfather (AKA The old man ) is a character that everyone loves ,but in his youth was a bit of a bad lad. He stole a car at 17 and was arrested . The judge offered him a chance to turn his life around by giving him a choice of going to prison , or joining the armed forces . He joined the Navy and never looked back . The military took him away from the bad environment ,gave him discipline and a sense of belonging .
Could such a system be envisaged in this country ? The financial savings would be immense as well as actually reforming criminals.
I would suggest that if it was offered as an option ,then the requirement would be to do and pass out from basic training before any pay is offered . With the proviso that failure would result in going to prison.
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