Local people to set punishments ?

The Ministry of Justice is expected to say that another 2,500 prisoners have been released early under the Governments’ end of custody licence scheme to ease jail overcrowding.

Local people will be able to set community service punishments for offenders for the first time, under new plans.

As part of pilot schemes in six areas of the country, citizens’ panels will able to tell probation officers and council officials what community sentences would help their neighbourhoods most.

Types of punishments handed out to offenders, who will have to wear high visibility tabards, range from graffiti removal and litter picking to clearing derelict land and decorating a community centre.  I hope they do not get mistaken for Police Officers or PCSO’s with them wearing high vis tabards…………whatever next?

Meetings to discuss community “pay back” schemes will take place regularly in each of the pilot areas.

Officials said that if the pilots in Leicester, Manchester, Suffolk, Hampshire, Wiltshire and north Wales were successful they would be expanded nationwide.

Justice Minister David Hanson said the move was part of plans to increase “visibility of sentences” in the wake of a well-received report from Louise Casey, the Home Office’s respect adviser, earlier this year.

Mr Hanson said: “Citizens’ Panels will put the public at the heart of decision-making in their local communities, allowing them to have more say on the type of work that offenders carry out.

“We are trying to make sure local people have an input into what work needs to be done, and can see the benefits which come as a result of people getting sentenced for their crimes.

“It’s to make sure that people recognise that community service is a difficult sentence, is difficult for the offender, but can also have benefits for the community in which the offence was committed.”

Yesterday local people in Leicester backed the citizens’ panels pilot scheme, saying it was important offenders could be seen to pay for their crimes.

I doubt for one minute that victims will play a prominent role in this as community schemes will take a good second place to increased incarceration schemes. Then we will need more prison places, again.

Chicken or egg ?

The Conservatives also said that they want to scrap a controversial programme which has seen tens of thousands of prisoners freed 18 days early to ease over crowding in jails.

Currently prisoners sentenced to less four years in jail are released after half way their sentence.

Research by the Conservatives claimed that more than 15,000 serious long-term offenders were given the right to automatic release halfway through their sentence.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said under the Tories prisoners would have to be earn their release by steering clear of drugs in prison, comply with rehabilitation programmes and pay compensation to victims.

Courts would hand down two minimum and maximum sentences for offenders, Mr Herbert said.

He told the Conservative annual conference in Birmingham: “Prisoners shouldn’t be released early irrespective of their behaviour. They shouldn’t be released automatically, except at the end of their sentence.

“They should earn their release. So we’re going to reform sentencing fundamentally to introduce honesty in the process.

“If they abide by the rules, comply with rehabilitation programmes to acquire basic skills, and show themselves fit for the outside world, then they’ll be released.

So could this be a test to see if you are fit for early release?

Banking system reintroduced?

With the apparent meltdown of some of the leading financial institutions there is likely to be a trend of banking change where under the the mattress or the shoe box in the wardrobe become the banking facility of choice.

Such was the apparent mistrust of the banking institutions that led people to store/save their money in this time honoured tradition because the banks were deemed to be the domain of the wealthy and upper classes. People thought their hard earned money was safer with them, after all their homes were their castles and what little spare was conveniently stashed away for that rainy day. If cash was needed it could be withdrawn from the shoe box 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and it meant that living within ones means was the only way to go unless you indulged in a bit of thieving.

I wonder if this will return ?

 

 

Tick the box – avoid the exercise yard.

Its that time of numerical and statistical madness again. Having just gotten over the incredibly tedious activity monitoring forms for the targeted and statutory two weeks, after being amongst those carefully and specially selected (again) from the CTCC massed ranks of the Specialist support Department, no sooner has the ink dried on the lines and thoughts to one less piece of junk mail to complete (until next year, when we will be carefully and specially selected, again no doubt) I found that being incarcerated as part of your debt to society is not all that is cracked up to be. Not in France anyway.

Not only do the le’criminale recidivists face stiffer sentences and slightly harsher conditions, but also face the prospect of being shot by a sniper if they have offended the wrong people.

Yes, that’s right. French criminals have a new worry on their minds………snipers on nearby hillsides.

I kid you not. Like a scene from a crime thriller film, a prisoner who faced interrogation over a murder was shot dead inside his French jail by a sniper positioned on a nearby hill. Another inmate, a friend of the dead man, was injured in the attack during which five shots were fired into the exercise yard of the jail at Varces-Grenoble, in the southeast of France.

I can just imagine the trouble this would cause if some disenfranchised victim, some do-gooder vigilante or some form of self appointed justice exterminator decided to go amok, gun in hand, dishing out their own form of summary justice by taking the law into their own hands.

A red-hot stove always burns.

Having read this little piece from Kingmagic, it is clear that many of us who operate within what is known as the Public Service Sector have a few things in common.

We are faced with the delights of sections of the general population who have absolutely no regard for anyone else but themselves nor for any of the actions that occur as a direct result of their behaviour.

From Schools, Hospitals and Armed Forces to the Emergency Services, we all have another thing that links us through some common ground.

We are all in the process of being shafted by the current Government and its varying policies. A Government who seem to exist in a dreamworld where inflation is under control and we all have to accept less than inflation pay rises whilst different priorities allow for money to be poured down the drain of another Government priority money pit when these strange decisions are made. Northern Rock, the 10p tax u-turn, MP’s expenses fiasco, the claims of fiscal prudence and sound financial judgement to make our economy safe from the ex-iron chancellor now turned leader who throws away the the reins of responsibility because it the fault of other entities, the list goes on and on.

I expect the shafting sticks to be put on standby in the secret cupboard as the election approaches and the caring, sharing suits of political humility brought out from their mothballed closets to show how everyone has misjudged Government policies because they never fully explained them to us properly.

In the meantime, we will continue to deal with the various ills of the population whilst, at the same time, dealing with the morons who help waste so much time yet, seem to give us so much do to help them run their lives for them. Morons who claim to want respect but have no idea of what this means to others, parents who believe they have no responsibility for their children when they are out and about, parents who bring their children up without the basic understanding of right and wrong, nor the guts to take responsibility for their own actions. Children and parents who hide behind collective rights for themselves and no-one else, no respect, no responsibility and no accountability. They are not victims, they make victims.

I am expecting another crackdown, perhaps on pay and conditions again, at any time. Now that will certainly help things along as we get another convenient let down whilst the huge sums needed to bail out failed policies seem obvious to those keen to save their own political hides.

To add to all the misery, the football season is well underway, bringing with it the loutish and alcohol fuelled behaviour from those who use the cover of alleged support for their team to wreak havoc on the mostly decent and law-abiding majority who frequent the emotional see-saw events where 22 at a time kick an inflated ball around a patch of grass within the white lines trying to catch it in a net at the opposite end of the arena. I am not impressed by some who attend these spectacles.

I am, however,  very impressed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, its dedication and efforts to maintain the memory and dignity of those who were lost in the conflict of two world wars and other unfortunate events.

I am also further impressed by the roller-coaster ride the Dragon Khan. If you are in Spain at the Port Aventura park where this ride is located I suggest you try it out. Make sure your ticker is OK first.

I am also even yet further impressed by Gadget’s literary offering, ‘Perverting the Course of Justice’ which brings home some of the reasons why we do this thing called Policing and puts some meat on the bones of the obstructive skeletons we have in our closets, from the senior ranking ‘decision makers’ to their political masters as well as the usual scapegoat accountability excuses of measuring and counting.

We learnt measuring and counting at school, this is where it should remain to help the young people of tomorrow.

‘Its not his fault’, p217, especially the final para sums a lot of it up rather nicely.

Credit or caution ?

It is not often that I applaud the comments of our Chief Officer group. For them it appears that the standard practice is to roll out the prepared positive statements that promote the brand but, at the same time do little or nothing to support the frontline officers who earn their crusts on the streets.

All too often I have heard the politicised statements that sound explicit and promising but are little more than prepared, worthless soundbytes in relation to the subject they are put in place to discredit or give a picture that all is well and positive.

Take this statement:

“Public confidence in the criminal justice system has increased significantly in recent years and we are working hard to bring more offenders to justice and to improve services to victims and witnesses. Since 1997 the government has increased prison capacity by over 23,000 places. Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the courts.”

I translated through the prepared and agreed jargon to be something completely different.

Public confidence (good phrase) increased significantly (positive phrase) working hard (effort ,  positive dedication and determination to get the job done) bring offenders to justice (mission statement related)  improve services to victims and witnesses ( shows how we care for important community groups)  over 23,000 ( a high statistic is always good)  Sentencing is a matter for the courts (the cop out statement. It is all somehow someone else’s fault, NB. do not mention sentencing guideline) 

The unexpurgated was a statement from a Ministry of Justice spokesperson apparently in response to the views of Mike Fuller, chief constable of Kent Police. His views were reported in an article in the Guardian newspaper. Like many other prepared statements it fails to acknowledge that anything is likely to be wrong and does not address the real problem(s) raised.

C.C. Fuller believes that dangerous criminals are avoiding jail or being released early because of a lack of places in the country’s prisons. He claims the crisis was entirely foreseeable: five years ago, ministers ordered police to bring more offenders to justice, but failed to think through the consequences.

He also said forces are over-inspected, with hours of his time each week wasted answering to 13 official national bodies, which sometimes gave contradictory advice and uncosted recommendations. C.C.Fuller was critical at the government’s attempts to ensure the police are up to scratch. He said up to 13 bodies had the right to inspect his force: “There’s always somebody inspecting us, or we’re under the threat of inspection. It is a constant inspection process. Probably at least a third of my time is spent dealing with inspection, inspection processes, preparing for inspection, accounting to inspection bodies.” He said some inspection bodies made contradictory recommendations: “It actually takes us away from our core role. There’s been too many targets… We’ve been over-inspected by too many agencies who often don’t cost their recommendations, who often don’t talk to each other or share information…”

When you get an officer from the Chief Officer group prepared to stick his head above the safety of the parapet to openly say what all frontline officers have been saying for years you only hope that someone, somewhere will take a little bit of notice of what this man is saying.

He will either be lauded for his comments and raised his personal profile and reputation or has limited his career to the shackles imposed by his peers because he dared to speak out against the all controlling monster that wishes to promote the brand at all costs.

I dare say that the targets will continue, the duplication of endless statistics will continue to justify someone Else’s position in the name of accountability and the measuring of things that it is essential to measure for someone to justify their position in the matter of accounting how they manage or delegate.

Interesting Times.

I’m sure you have all heard the comments that Police Officers appear to be getting younger by the year. It seems that after 20 or so years officers do appear to be getting younger. Perhaps this is a sign of getting older. Who knows ?

I had to head towards the hallowed halls of CTCC HQ for a bit of a chat with the fine new classes that will be the officers of tomorrow, today,  as it were. One of those talk thingies about how the Dogs section offers this and that, what you should not do is chased or confronted by one of our furry pets and that sort of thing. I was struck by a couple of things. Firstly how long until someone would ask if it hurts when one of our dogs bites someone and secondly how young they all looked.  Yes it does, very much and some of them did not appear to have started shaving yet, and that is just the male officers, who incidentally, were outnumbered by those who were not male officers.

At this point the new Force Strategic Guide on such matters, “dinosaurs and diversity”, was brought to my attention.  I will read this when I get a quiet moment alone.

I was even more struck by how young most of the training staff appear to be. Not just in age but in service as well. The various gang of tutors, facilitators and mentors appear to have little than a handful of years of experience each and few over full pensionable service between them. Some of them appear to have spent most of their service in this facilitating malarkey and it could be said that some might possibly be lacking in the operational experience credibility area.

This started me thinking, and that could be a bit worrying.

Exactly how could this perceived shortage of experience be brought to the fore and be beneficial in painting a real picture of life under the chequered headband of justice. I dare say that it is about how the facilitator-ship of this law and order experience is put over that is important but, I do fear that for the uninitiated in the ways of the real world, someone with less than a handful of years in Policing, at what I would call the sharp end, is as well versed in all areas of society as they might be leaves a little to be desired. Perhaps the answer is to push them out there and let them find out for themselves ?  They have no idea of what interesting times they are in for.

I was also worried at the extreme politeness and reservedness of the shiny new band of the nation’s finest. Had I put on my deranged man scenario I felt certain that most of them would have burst into tears or hidden under their chairs. I feel sure that number of complaints for being rude or being horrible will fall so someone will be happy.

What some of them will do when they get a smack in the mouth by someone who refuses to be arrested or has some other pathetic excuse for non-compliance  could be an interesting proposition. Also not a single ex-military amongst them, another worrying trend perhaps. Now there is a waste of a several years of life experiences to draw on.

Interesting Times ahead.

Motive answer.

Answer:
   
She was hoping the guy would re-appear at her sister’s funeral.  

If you  answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath.  

This was a test by a famous American Psychologist used to test if one has the same mentality as a killer.  

Many arrested serial killers took part in the testing and answered the question correctly.
   
  
If you didn’t answer the question correctly, good for you.   
  
  
If you got the answer correct, I must can take you off my email list. Some of you seem to have developed a suddenly worrying psychological profile.