I WONDER just how many of the general public in the United Kingdom actually believe our justice and penal system is working. I certainly don’t!
Our police forces in the whole of the UK seem to be working in a revolving door. As soon as they arrest someone for a crime or crimes they are bailed and within a number of days or weeks they break their bail conditions.
They are again arrested by the police only to be given virtually the same bail conditions. Our police forces countrywide must be terribly demoralised.
Now it is time our MPs debated a long-term strategy to build a number of new prisons. Also ditch the private sector involvement and go back to employing within the prison service. A long-term investment will pay off and if the penal system is run properly the re-offending will certainly be cut right down.
Bail conditions should be given if and only if there is no violence involved in the crime and there is no way a prisoner will abscond. If any prisoner does reoffend in any way then bail should be revoked and the prisoner held until his or her court appearance.
The justice system I believe is in turmoil. Our judges and magistrates need to be singing from the same hymn sheet. There is such a difference in sentencing. All the guidelines need updating and judges given more powers in sentencing.
Also, when it comes to sentencing on a crime that has a two year sentence, fine or community service the judge or magistrate could let them choose which they preferred to have with the proviso that if they failed to turn up for the community service or failed to pay the fine then they are re-arrested and the two year sentence is handed out to them with no time off for good behaviour. It puts the onus on the criminal to reform.
The penal system has over the years been far too liberalised and too many do-gooders have been fighting for more rights for those who are incarcerated.
I personally believe that those sent to our prisons are there to reflect on their actions and to pay the price for their misdemeanours.
That means being locked up with no television. Depending on a sentence, the first six months should be in their cell.
Give them cable radio with a speaker in their cell with a switch for Radio 4 and Radio 2. No interacting unless they behave for the first six months.
If, after they show they have been a model prisoner, then let them use the gymnasium. If they are serving a large sentence then give them a job of work to do. If they then keep being a model prisoner then give them education so they can improve themselves. This, in turn, will aid rehabilitation.
Prisoners will always take the easy option just to have an easy ride through their sentence. The prison service needs to take control again and make prison a place where people don’t want to return to ever again.
I’m not against prisoners being reformed or educated. I am against them having an easy time when they are there to pay the price for the crime or crimes they have committed.
I also believe putting investment into the penal system, building more prisons and reforming our prisons to be more harsh, putting the onus on the prisoner to show he is a model prisoner to earn any rights. This surely is not asking too much!
We are always hearing the term Human Rights. Surely it is the Human Rights of all in the United Kingdom to feel safe in our homes, safe walking along a street be it day or night.
I don’t believe it is the Human Right of some criminal to break into a house and steal or rob and assault an old lady walking from the shops. Yet these people who are having an easy time in our penal colonies still use the Human Rights law as and when they can against the system.
I firmly believe that if you commit an offence and are sentenced to prison you then forgo any rights.
So one has to ask, when will a Government stand up to the do-gooders and liberals and make our justice and penal system work.
I think most of our police officers would be pleased to get rid of the revolving door system that we seem to have in this day and age.
Keith Bagot
Honley
Wind of change?
HAS a wind of change happened regarding the more or less automatic planning approval of wind turbines? Hopefully it has.
There may be a place for them but it is not in rural England. How people can live alongside these beggars belief.
Around this quiet part of Huddersfield we have seen them appear on the skyline with regularity. However, I noticed while reading through the planning applications in the Neighbourhood News section of the Huddersfield Examiner that a 50m tubular towered (blot on the landscape) turbine has recently been refused. This refusal is, however, not set in concrete as the applicant has the right to appeal this decision.
The appeal if applied for will go before the faceless mandarins of planning appeals in Bristol. And as we all know these people know nothing about our region. They do not see the big picture of turbine proliferation and applications in our local beauty spots.
We have many rivers and streams so what of hydro power?
SMD
Shelley
Food donations
I READ the exciting news that Tesco are working with Trussell Trust and fareshare nationally and having a food collection in Huddersfield where customers will be asked to buy food for people in need while in the store.
In Huddersfield we have The Welcome Centre food bank that has been supporting local people in crisis for over 20 years. We have given out around 5,600 packs this year and the demand for our service is sadly growing as more people are struggling in this difficult economic climate. People come to us for many diverse reasons and are all referred by many of the frontline support services in Kirklees. The food packs we give out supports someone’s basic food needs for a full week.
The Welcome Centre is an independent local registered charity that is not part of any other larger national food bank such as the Trussell Trust.
We have had fantastic support from the people of Huddersfield over the years and if anyone would like to support us by giving a donation of food we would be extremely grateful as our stock is very low because of the increase in demand. The food you donate will go directly to people who are really struggling to feed their families in our area.
Please contact us on 01484 515086 or bring to the Methodist Mission on Lord Street, Huddersfield, between 10am and 4pm Monday to Friday.
Karen Selley
The Welcome Centre Manager
Squadron search
DID you serve with 152 (Hyderabad) Squadron at any time between 1940 and 1967 or did your father or grandfather?
If so, please get in touch. The squadron has a new home and we’re hoping to put together a small collection of its history.
Please contact me on 01473 251219 or um152squadron@gmail.com
Rob Rooker
Ipswich
