http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/john-redwood-on-prison-reform Frances Crook's blog. Frances Crook, Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, provides informal comments on the issues of the day Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:25:06 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/john-redwood-on-prison-reform/comment-page-1#comment-248 Paul Slatter Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:04:15 +0000 http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/?p=763#comment-248 The idea that offenders do time in a State institution for a crime committed against a particular individual doesn't make much sense on the face of it, does it? It presumably comes from the feudal idea that we all belong - eventually - to the sovereign. I guess, once upon a time, this de-personalisation was a useful way of combating the risk of blood feuds between clans and extended families 'taking the law into their own hands'. Privatising punishment - like Redwood suggests - makes good sense inasmuch as society has moved on. That's the slight note of caution I'd add... that society in some places still needs punishment to be depersonalised because of wider risks to public order of personalisation. And, of course, violent crime, hate crimes and corrosive antisocial behaviour still need a communal response because it is society as a whole that has been injured by them. But I wonder whether even in these cases and in places where privatisation of crime might be dangerous, punishment could be organised more by the local State rather than centrally. I suppose the Probation Service's Community Payback scheme is an example of an attempt to make community sentences feel more 'community-controlled'. The idea that offenders do time in a State institution for a crime committed against a particular individual doesn’t make much sense on the face of it, does it? It presumably comes from the feudal idea that we all belong – eventually – to the sovereign. I guess, once upon a time, this de-personalisation was a useful way of combating the risk of blood feuds between clans and extended families ‘taking the law into their own hands’. Privatising punishment – like Redwood suggests – makes good sense inasmuch as society has moved on. That’s the slight note of caution I’d add… that society in some places still needs punishment to be depersonalised because of wider risks to public order of personalisation. And, of course, violent crime, hate crimes and corrosive antisocial behaviour still need a communal response because it is society as a whole that has been injured by them. But I wonder whether even in these cases and in places where privatisation of crime might be dangerous, punishment could be organised more by the local State rather than centrally. I suppose the Probation Service’s Community Payback scheme is an example of an attempt to make community sentences feel more ‘community-controlled’.

]]> http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/john-redwood-on-prison-reform/comment-page-1#comment-247 Jed Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:54:59 +0000 http://www.howardleague.org/francescrookblog/?p=763#comment-247 it would seem the Spectator sees the sense in John Redwood's comments http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5730618/redwood-is-right-prison-sentencing-may-need-reform-out-of-fiscal-necessity.thtml it would seem the Spectator sees the sense in John Redwood’s comments http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5730618/redwood-is-right-prison-sentencing-may-need-reform-out-of-fiscal-necessity.thtml

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