Express & Star Comment: Let the punishment fit the crime Mr Cameron
Prison should act as both a punishment and a deterrent. In an ideal world anyone found guilty of a crime that leads to a spell in jail should reach the end of their sentence and not want to return.
Yet the fact that our prisons are packed to the rafters with repeat offenders highlights one of the key failings of our criminal justice system.
The tales of criminality covered by the Express & Star today provide stark examples of where we are going wrong:
Nicholas Mason, 41, was on bail having been charged with battery when he was spotted driving a stolen car dangerously through the streets of Wolverhampton on Christmas Day. Mason, who was banned from driving at the time and has 24 previous convictions involving 57 separate offences, was jailed for 20 months.
Meanwhile drug addict Simon Keiten, 51, has been stealing to feed his habit for more than 40 years. His latest theft from a store at the Merry Hill centre saw him receive a 12-month community order and a six month drug rehabilitation requirement. Incredibly, Keiten has chalked up 153 previous offences.
Taking the two cases together we have a picture of a pair of crooks who have built up horrendous criminal records. Yet Mason will more than likely be back on the streets before the end of the year, while Keiten will not even see the inside of a cell. It is utter lunacy.
The cases referred to here provide more evidence that the UK is blighted by a justice system that repeatedly hands out sentences that are too lenient and offers no deterrent to criminals. It is a system that recently saw James Robb, 23, and Alistair Douglas, 26, receive meagre sentences for their brutal, life-ruining attack on Josh Morgan.
The Express & Star makes no apologies for repeating our calls for tougher sentences.
POLL: Should young offenders be kept in secure schools instead of prisons?
153 offences and counting: Community order for addict caught stealing AGAIN
Chief constable: Tough sentences will 'wipe' out violent crime
Today West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson tells us that he believes lengthy prison sentences help to reduce violent crime.
The logic behind this is irrefutable.
Criminals cannot damage society while they are behind bars.
In private, experienced police officers often confide that local crime rates are linked to who is behind bars at any given time. Lock up the local thieves and crime goes down.
Once they are out, the cycle begins again.
Yet the Prime Minister's prison reforms announced this week reveal plans to allow inmates near the end of their sentences out of jail during the week.
What sort of a message is this from a Government that purports to be tough on crime?
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of cases involving so-called 'petty offenders' are now dealt with outside the justice system by conditional cautions and community resolutions.
It is time we started to see the punishment fitting the crime and a Prime Minister standing up for the people in the street – not the crooks behind bars.
