Do you believe in "Second Chances"?

TheyKnowMyIP wrote: »

Tell that to the bleeding heart liberals.

Did we suddenly move to the other side of the atlantic?



It's not a clear-cut thing, as it's often made out to be.

It's easy to say, "let's be hardline on crime" but the result of that is increasing prison populations and the massive cost associated with that, both economically and socially (fatherless children etc...)

If you say "let's rehabilitate" people will complain about all the cases that show the system is being 'soft' of criminals. The press will always find stories about offenders with consoles, or something similar. What's the alternative, put them in a work house?


For me, if we're spending the money, I'd rather spend it on trying to rehabilitate people, as I think you're hedging your bets in a more positive way. For me, I'm happy to accept that we'll waste money on reoffenders, for the few offenders that we save. Crime is often generational, so I think changing culture, is a much better goal.

pragmatic1 wrote: »

I am a bleeding heart liberal but my liberalism ends with scumbags.

I feel them same in my heart, and though I hate 'scumbags' personally, I've tried to understand how maybe I'm a bit biased

We all form habits and rules around social behaviour. If you grow up in a rough neighbourhood, and all your friends are rough, you really don't have many options. You get taught, through trial, error and beatings, that being aggressive first is safer, than being open, gets you beaten, and that institutions (like the gardai) are there to mess you and your family up. If you're growing up in that environment, that's your truth, that's your reality, and it's a long long journey to come around to 'normality'.

There was some great programs on channel 4 a few years back about mentoring programs for released young offenders, and it was clear to see many 'scumbags' where merely reacting to their environment. Simply labelling someone as a scumbag is easy, doesn't solve the problem though.



Edit: anyone interested in informing themselves about about prisons, i'd well recommend reading some of this. Amazing report and suggestions based on a large indepth study with psychologies & architects on how to design better prisons:
http://www.participle.net/images/uploads/Learning_Works.pdf (very large filesize, so may take awhile)