Only On The BBC ...
>> Tuesday, August 04, 2009
There's concern about the number of prisoners released early from prison on license who go on to kill or commit serious crime while still under 'supervision' :Criminals on probation committed more than 1,000 serious crimes over the last two years, including nearly one murder a week in England and Wales.
The government figures give details of the 1,167 offences committed by people being supervised by probation officers.
The total included 94 murders, 105 rapes and 43 arson attacks.
Only a BBC producer could decide that the best person to interview on the topic is someone who believes the problem to be, not that criminals are being released early from prison, but that they were sent there in the first place.
As I've pointed out before, Frances Crook of the Howard League For The Abolition of Punishment must be able to find her way to the Today studios blindfold by now.
40 comments:
....and even if she couldn't, the ever faithful labrador Shami would be only too happy to assist.
A debate I heard on the Toady programme once was "are there too many people in prison?".
Er, there are as many people in prison as there are meant to be - minus this lot of course. What a strange thing to ask.
Perhaps a list of commentators that live in the BBC and are wheeled out to support their lefty arguments should be assembled.
Here's a couple:
1 Kevin Mcguire
2 St. Vince of Cable
3 Shami Chakrobati
4 Stephen Pound
What is needed is action not words,let these people adopt a prisoner into their own home,Perhaps open a hostel for these unfortunates in Frances's leafy suburb,perhaps mingle with her children?
BBC suppoorts freedom for convicted rqapists...
Hmm - the feminists are where, exactly?
Licensed to Kill.
Labour - Fantasy to reality.
Wheeling out Stephen Pound is like me taking a dump. Very smelly and you don't really want to look at it for long.
A few months ago I did actually hear a 'proper' debate about the UK prison population and just how 'hard' we are on these poor souls.
In Spain, there is one prison inmate for every 12,000 crimes reported. In the UK, one prison inmate for every 53,000 crimes 'reported'.
Maybe these peaceniks need to actually use statistics a little more honestly and give the population a true picture of crime and out justice system in the 21st century.
The closed mindset at the BBC made this interview a wasted opportunity.
Frances Crook did at least state that there are dangerous violent criminals who need to be locked up!
But the inteviewer did not try to draw her out on the consequences of this admission and simply took at face value the claim that the proper road to take is that of re-habilitation.
Some people think that institutional attempts to turn these people round are, with rare exceptions, doomed to failure whence it follows that the only thing to do is to keep them locked up, possibly for life.
Try to find this point of view expressed chez Aunty!
Of course beeboids are happy to let the violent thugs out so long as they stick them on sink council estates and not the places where rich beeboids and liberals live.
Imagine the criteria for the conditions of letting a prisoner out . The experts who assess what cahance there is of him/her reoffending, including the violent ones.
Does it have to be 100% in their minds that this prisoner will not commit any more crimes ?For safety.
now imagine the criteria for the Health and safety of running a factory, transport company or restaurant.
Do the directors and managers have to be 100% sure that whatever practises ,equipment or buildings there are have to be 100% safe ?
Or can they take the same % risks as the establishment do when freeing criminals ?
'Only a BBC producer could decide that the best person to interview on the topic is someone who believes the problem to be, not that criminals are being released early from prison, but that they were sent there in the first place.'
How about Justice minister Claire Ward? or the former chief probation officer David Scott?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8179263.stm
Frances Crook wasn't the only person interviewed on the subject on the BBC was she David? Of course I appreciate that you may disagree with her opinion, as you have your own OPINION but that's not the same as bias. That seems to be beyond your grasp.
I think you hear 'Howard League For Penal Reform' and think 'soft on criminals', 'dhimmis for rapists' etc whereas if you actually took the time to listen to what she said, I think you'd find you've misunderstood her argument.
But that's beside the point. If you're going to post every time you hear a voice on the BBC that you disagree with, then you're going to be busy.
Anonymous..
And what bbc programme are you the producer of? You are pathetic.
No No No No No No No!
I heard this interview with its pro-criminal bias, why was no victim interviewed?
A year or so ago I was made really happy when I read that an MSP had been beaten up by low life from a council estate. I just wish that our criminal fraternity would attack, rape and burgle MPs , MSps, councillors, beeboids but most of all Judges, magistrates, sheriffs and lawyers. Perhaps then the powers that be might protect the ordinary citizens from the depredations of the sub-human scum who infest this country.
Anon - who's this 'David' chappie you're arguing with ?
Fritigern
I just wish that our criminal fraternity would attack, rape and burgle MPs , MSps, councillors, beeboids but most of all Judges, magistrates, sheriffs and lawyers.
That's a lot of rape and pillage. Should we sub-contract it to the Danes?
Perhaps then the powers that be might protect the ordinary citizens from the depredations of the sub-human scum who infest this country.
Audacious....but...but...
Can't quite put my finger on it, but the notion of encouraging sub-human scum to attack, burgle and, um, rape thousands of people might have limitations as a crime-reduction strategy.
Can we get back to you on that?
Oh sorry Opinionated he left you off his list...
Anonymus 10.15 writes: "But that's beside the point. If you're going to post every time you hear a voice on the BBC that you disagree with, then you're going to be busy."
Let's try this another way, shall we?
If we ever heard opinions we agreed with then this blog wouldn't exist at all.
Gordon Brown will spend part of his summer break doing voluntary work in his Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency, officials have said.
The Guardian reported that the PM had told colleagues he wanted to spend a week doing community work as part of a month-long holiday.
Could we all agree that we wish Mr Brown a much deserved summer holiday after such excellent recent work.
Good post, Laban.
I listened with increasing incredulity to Ms Crook waxing lyrical about locking up for 23 hours a day, nothing to do, coercion into drug use etc etc.
She has a point, but there she stopped (as all bien-pensant lefty-liberals do).
I found myself growling at the radio "yeah,maybe, but what about the HLPR tackling some of the issues which get them into clink in the first place?", like the state-sponsored denigration of family authority and the state-directed abrogation of teaching right and wrong, and punishing the latter, lest that be considered judgmental.
Al-Be'eb at its best I guess.
'Happy Birthday Mr President - it's Barack Obama's birthday, but if the opinion polls are to be believed the American people will not have the bunting out. Why is he tripping up on the domestic front? And who is giving him a hard time over his flagship policies - healthcare reform and climate change?
The devil is in the detail and he is apparently short on clarity and decisiveness. Has he failed to stamp his authority on Congress and the Senate? Today the President is attempting to win round opponents of his plans from his own party.'
Newsnight:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2009/08/tuesday_4_august_2009.html
Sorry Laban, one headcase sounds much the same as another to me.
Very interesting comment about the Dems on the Fox News panel.
When Democrats protest it's called "Grass roots protests"
When it's the people the Dems don't like it's called "anti Obama"
It's quite interesting how the right to protest goes out of the window when it's the real people (the tea parties and now the health care protests) want to do it.
Remember the woman that protested outside of George Bush's ranch in Texas? Bush never tried to have her removed, but how interesting that several Democrats have had elderly protesters removed from their offices.
Newsnight was pathetic. They are so out of touch at the BBC with the anger from many ordinary Americans.
On the subject of prisons they keep mentioning Cookham Wood in Kent. But they fail to tell listeners exactly where the facility is in that large county. They pulled the same stunt recently when they "covered" the oil refinery kerfuffle in Lincolnshire, again without bothering to tell anyone where exactly it is. The term sloppy journalism comes to mind.
Cookham Wood in Kent...they fail to tell listeners exactly where the facility is in that large county.
Always bothers me, that: Is it near Sittingbourne? Or Rochester? Much more important than what actually goes on in there.
Journalists!
The term sloppy journalism comes to mind.
On the button, brother.
Biased BBC should be campaigning for full grid references, a list of local landmarks and a refresher course in local history every time they mention a place. Otherwise, what do we pay them for?
Anon above (BBC Producer)
I think I only ever hear voices that I disagree with on the BBC, that is because:
"The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It's a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias"
I am systematically excluded by the BBC who feel that views that diffder from their self defined liberal orthodoxy are obnoxious and not only should never be heard, but must be attacked at all times.
When was the last time we heard Fredrick Forsyth's musings on BBC radio? How about a 30 minute programme handed over to Simon Heffer 'to do with what he will'?
Just face it - the BBC is institutionally biased at every level. The BBC systematically exclude very large proportions of the population and denigrate their opinions
That was me above
As a matter of interest, which country in the world has a more liberal "justice" system and prison regime than the UK ?
If I were a criminal , I know which country I would choose to live in !
So do large numbers of criminals from Third World shitholes where the Religion of Peace(TM) is the official bigotry, Grant.
N.O.
Yes BBC, we bleepin' get it. We're ALL guilty.
Except those in prison. They're all innocent.
I don't mind how often Shami Chakrabati is on the TV, because she's a babe
Grant: You might like to investigate Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland or Norway, all of whom operate considerably more liberal regimes than Britain, without their societies collapsing
Is she Reeta's sister ?
I'd like to report the crime of £130 being lifted from my back pocket at the barrel of the states gun.
It is my sincerest wish that the released prisoners inflict their crimes on the chattering BBC types who support this madness.
Utterly disgraceful.
Grant: You might like to investigate Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland or Norway, all of whom operate considerably more liberal regimes than Britain, without their societies collapsing
All have more homogenous societies and most are considerably smaller in population.
Generally the larger the country and the more culturally and ethnically diverse the people, the harsher the laws needed to keep them from robbing + killing each other.
Seems to me anyway
Listening to the clip of Frances Cook on the Today programme – linked to above – it is clear that she does not say that criminals should not be sent to prison. She explicitly states: “If we send the wrong people to prison, the prison can’t cope; they can’t do anything useful with the people who have to be there because they are dangerous.” She goes on to say prisons should hold people “who have committed serious and violent offences [and] who are dangerous”. What Frances Cook and the Howard League for Penal Reform believes is that there needs to be new ways of dealing with offenders who do not pose a serious danger to the community. The vast majority of women in prison, for instance, are jailed for non-violent offences. Nearly a third of them will be first-time offenders. For those people who do not pose an immediate danger to society, the Howard League advocates the use of community sentences, which are proven to cut crime and reoffending rates. To find out more about Frances Cook, take a look at her blog at http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/ or visit the Howard League for Penal Reform at http://www.howardleague.org/.
"Another liberal myth is that Britain sends more people to prison than any other country in Europe, measured by head of population. But this statistic is flawed, since it takes no account of crime rates in each country. In reality, when seen in the context of overall crime, Britain has one of the most lenient justice systems in Europe. For every 1,000 recorded crimes, we have just 12 people in prison. Only Sweden, with 4.7 prisoners per 1,000 crimes, has a lower incarceration rate. In contrast, Ireland jails 33 people per 1,000 crimes and Spain 48. It is revealing that Britain and Sweden have the two highest rates of recorded crime in Europe."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1522856/At-last-criminals-would-have-something-to-fear-from-courts.html
'Let's try this another way, shall we? If we ever heard opinions we agreed with then this blog wouldn't exist at all.'
Oh the irnoy, when David Vance is a regular on the Beeb. How many people does he represent?
Anonymous (of course) writes: "Oh the irnoy, when David Vance is a regular on the Beeb. How many people does he represent?"
Clearly more than you hope.
Meanwhile, with a circulation of a miserable 336,034 in May and the Observer teetering on the brink of closure, just how many people's points of view are represented by the sad procession of Guardianistas trotted out day after day on the BBC?
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