Lord Taylor Redefines Chutzpah

Lord Taylor of Warwick, who was jailed over his expenses, says he will return to the Lords as he has a "role to play" informing the debate on prison reform. 

 OK

Not Funny

As the Chief Inspector of Prisons says, accidentally translating "exercise yard" into "execution yard" in a leaflet for Russian prisoners is very serious:

"You could treat it as a bit of a joke unless you were that prisoner and you didn't understand how the British prison service worked and came from a country that still had execution yards. It wouldn't be a funny thing for him."

 He's right, it wouldn't be funny then, because it would be hilarious.

Quote Of The Day

I'm rather fond of villains going to prison.

- Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson.

'Craven, Complacent, Conceited & Catastrophic'

The coalition's commitment to reducing prison numbers has been presented as being something surprising and out of character for a Tory dominated government. However this is only because people make the mistake of believing what the Tory's say rather than traditionally do (with the notable exception of Michael Howard). Stephen Pollard reminds Telegraph readers of one of Margaret Thatcher's Home Secretaries:

One only needs to turn the clock back a few years to the tenure as home secretary of one of the most craven, complacent, conceited and catastrophic public figures of recent years: Douglas Hurd. As home secretary he presided over record crime increases, allowing more criminals to roam the streets than any of his predecessors and ruling out any notion of reducing crime. Lord Hurd's philosophy was Conservative penal tradition at its worst: that the purpose of policy was to stem the increase in crime. The thought of reducing it was laughed out of court.

No liberal penal idea was too much; any idea of punishment didn't bear contemplation. As home secretary, from 1985 to October 1989, Lord Hurd set out to reduce the prison population. The consequence was a rapid increase in crime. In 1985 there were 46,800 prisoners, rising to 50,000 in 1988 as judges responded to the consequent crime wave. But rather than back the judges, he cut the prison population so that it fell to 45,600 soon after he left. Police-recorded crime increased from 3.6 million in 1985 to 4.5 million in 1990. Yet even today he still bangs the drum for reducing prison numbers as chairman of the Prison Reform Trust.

When Labour claimed that a Tory government would take us back to the 1980s I was delighted, unfortunately the one aspect of the Thatcher government that the coalition seem to want to emulate is their strategy on crime, where the brilliant idea of not locking up convicted criminals led to a surge in offending.

Ken Clarke attributes the fall in crime from the early 1990s to his success as Chancellor rather than Howard's tenure as Home Secretary. However it is noticeable that the recent recession saw a drastic fall in the homicide rate to its lowest point for almost 20 years so it isn't really clear cut that economic growth reduces crime.

Can We Sack Him Now?

Isn't it time for Alan Duncan to be sacked now? Alright maybe wait until after the election just to maximise his disappointment.

In a series of highly controversial remarks, Mr Duncan reportedly told a prisons conference:

• It is ‘repulsively simplistic’ to say that prison works.
• ‘Lock ’em up’ is ‘Key Stage 1 politics’.
• Prisoners should be ‘met at the gate’ on release from jail.

It isn't so much that I think he's wrong, although he is, it is the fact that he goes around in private not only sucking up to extreme left wing figures like Frances Crook and feels the need not only to express his policy disagreement with his party but to denounce those who disagree with him as being mentally subnormal (Key Stage 1 politics) or morally bankrupt (repulsively simplistic).

Naturally his criticisms, as reported at least, don't actually contain any actual arguments about what the likely effects of prison policy will be, but are primarily about ingratiaitng himself with the people who despise the voters who actually vote for him. This also applies to his numerous appearances on panel shows.

126 Not Out

Sources close to Weinstein said the mogul would reach out to Hollywood to lobby against any move to bring Polanski to the US, where he could face up to 50 years in jail.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't believe Polanski will be in prison until he is 126 years old.

Viking Rampagers Not Good Law & Order Role Models.

why is it that Finland, Sweden and Norway in particular, have much lower rates of imprisonment than other European countries?

Don't know, probably because they are populated by earnest Nordic types who believe criminals need to be understood. I'm not sure why we should consider them to be role models in crime prevention though, Finland has the highest murder rate in Western Europe, Sweden has the most crimes per capita in Western Europe. Norway is arguably a low crime country but a one out of three success rate suggests that the Nordic model isn't better than the system we already have.

Ill Treatment Of Julie Bindel's Imaginary Friends Demonstrates The Oppression Of The Sisterhood

It's not often that I agree with Julie Bindel but her heartfelt article on the problems faced by female prisoners has really touched a nerve. Admittedly the reasons she gives don't appear to be uniquely applicable to women at first glance but it isn't like Ms Bindel to play something up as an example of womyn's victimhood is it?

However she has persuaded me that this situation has to be remedied so from now on I will campaign against the practice of releasing female inmates from prison which appears to cause so much hardship.

Update: Sorry I should have referred to "the problems faced by fictional female prisoners"

Diversity Thriving In Prisons.

Uh oh, there is a problem in one of our prisons:

A Prison Service report has expressed concern about problems with the high number of Muslim inmates at one of Britain's high-security jails.

A review of Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire found staff were fearful of doing the wrong thing, "shifting the power dynamic towards prisoners".

The prison service famously sacks officers for insensitivity if they fail to show respect for Osama Bin Laden so it isn't hard to guess why prison officers are unwilling to confront prison gangs who recruit among Muslims. Still at least they can't be accused of failing to act on the basis of the new report:

The report recommended an "intelligence assessment of the Muslim prisoner group of concern and their possible activities" and "more cultural awareness and diversity training".
...............
The Prison Service said a "programme of work" was planned "to increase mutual understanding between staff and prisoners", including a "development day for staff on the Muslim faith".

So "diversity training" is the solution to prison officers being terrified of being insensitive towards ethnic minority inmates! It's like having petrol filled fire extinguishers.