If we were in the business of rehabilitating criminals in the prison system so that on being discharged they were equipped to take their place in society and earn and honest living how would we go about that?
What training courses might we offer to the former burglars, safe crackers and car thieves. What trades would be best suited to keeping them in gainful employment and out of the way of temptation?
We can see at once that plumbing, painting and decorating and domestic electrics would not be very suitable as these tradesmen may at times have to be left alone in a customer's house. Car Mechanics and carpenters work is mostly carried on in workshops so they are good prospects.
Work in factories or on construction sites is good, shop work which involves handling cash is a bit dodgy for those with the light fingered gene.
There is one trade however we would not in any circumstances offer to people with a criminal record.
So why, among the retraining programmes offered by the U.K. prison service is a course in being a LOCKSMITH the most popular option on offer.
Someone didn't think that one through did they?
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Comments: 55
The funniest thing is that since I observed the process, the next time I locked my keys in the car, in front of K's daycare, I asked the staff for a wire hanger and opened the door myself. It took me a lot longer than it took the experts, and I'm not sure what the daycare staff was thinking, but it was a lot faster than any other option.
And we wonder why the criminals get off while the innocent, trusting the system to protect them, end up behind bars.
Sheryl; there's a thing I've heard on "This American Life" a couple of times about a prison production of "Hamlet." It's fascinating hearing the prisoners' takes on the characters they play. Due to prison rules on gatherings it took several years to do all 5 acts. Some of the prisoners had talent.
I don't believe in pure punishment - everyone deserves some kind of chance, but also the assistance in getting there....what better way to change someone's behavior than to open up their mind?
I also agree with Sheryl, "I don't believe in pure punishment - everyone deserves some kind of chance, but also the assistance in getting there....what better way to change someone's behavior than to open up their mind?" It seems logical, for those who don't care about humane, that investing in change would make all of us safer.
Yeah well teaching them computer skills was bad enough.
The most useless person to get help from when you lock yourself out of your car is a police officer. They will just break your window with a club.
Oh yes, they enjoy their work - ans someone elses TV, HiFi, credit card....
This is good even for Government workers though.
Your sarcasm alert reminds me of my "oops pardon!" when I have used an obvious double entendre.
Giving crims a degree in law takes some beating.
Yeah, just a recognised qualification to back up on the bob experience.
Gaining skills is harder second time around. Take walking, first time I was up and away in two years. This time its taken 10 years and I'm still struggling :-)
Be interesting to get prisoners doing Julius Caesar.
The prison hierarchy has a few parallels with the intrigues and rivalries of caesars Rome I should think.
You said it, to open up their minds. Bit like the way I saw Reading Lolita in Tehran really.
Right, get rid of that victim mindset, the tendency to think "its me against the world" and we are halfway there.
We have many such rocket scientists in Britain
Well the guys will certainly be locked into their new careers
Wherever you go in the world, human nature and human folly are pretty much the same.
Oops, I forgot you are a rocket scientist and Suze did not know.
I guess I ought to introduce the concept of boy-scientists, a british breed who are fundamentalist scientists in that they argue passionately, irrationally for "science" and yet cannot see the glaringly obvious - oh and they are short on emotional maturity, hence the "boy" bit. They are all male
If rehabilitation really is an option then reading and writing would be the obvious first choice... if the corollary that lack of education leads to criminal behavior holds true.
Rather than give them the skills to further their criminal career choice...
then again even some form of labor would be preferable to allowing them to languish away in prison creating their own little dynasties to carry on outside... if the TV and Movie industry are to be believed in their portrayal of prison life...
With my luck, one will be reading and protest.
I'm not sure lack of education leads to crime, I think lack of opportunity leads to crime and in the economic climate of the past 30 years we have exported the traditional industried that offered the working class many opportunities for making a decent living to low labour cost nations in Eastern Europe, South America and South East Asia.
Not everybody can be an investment broker and working in a call centre is hardly a ewarding career. We need a rethink.
Bureau rats and crackpot economists life Milton Friedman
"I'm poor."
"I've never caught a break."
"I had a broken home."
"I had no choice."
"She was asking for it."
"They got what they deserved."
"I never get a fair break because I'm (pick your favorite excuse)."
"I never learned any better."
"I can't stop myself."
As long as we keep teaching our children the wrong lessons: "It's not your fault. They shouldn't have picked on you." "It's society's fault." "It's a phase." "It's those friends he hangs out with; my boy's a good boy." "The ends justify the means." We'll keep seeing people commit crimes with the mindset that the world owes them something.
OK, not sure where all that came from, but that kind of attitude pisses me off.
Ah, there we get back to the damage psychology has done.
My Grandad told me "Life owes you nothing, you just have to make the best way you can and there is only yourself to blame when things go wrong." It was a good lesson.
But of course psychologists disapprove of Grandparents.
I've read about about people, known people who have lived through all kinds of hell who still refused to become monsters. I hate that terrible things happen to innocent people, but you can't undo it by hurting others. You can't control what others do, but you can be responsible for yourself. I believe that. That may make me sound callous and unfeeling, but where does it end?
Do I believe people can be rehabilitated, people can make a mistake, and become fruitful citizens? Yes. But not unless they take responsibility for their actions and their destinies. As long as they spend their lives believing they never really did anything wrong, they'll be on the same path over and over and over. Giving them tools to be better criminals isn't smart unless you're successful in convincing them that they CAN take responsibility for themselves and do the right things.
There is, however, a difference between explanations and excuses, and certain areas of psychology and neuroscience are finding real explanations for the differences between people's varying ability to exercise self-control, or to take other people's interests into account. This is a disturbing thought in terms of our understanding of responsibility, but some facts about injuries to or reduced function in some parts of the brain are now undeniable. Can most people change their behavior? Yes. But we're not all facing the same challenges, and that applies to mental issues as well--to our very ability to deal with other kinds of challenges in life.
I understand that there are shades of gray and technicolor, that good people have bad moments, that control is not the same for everyone. But I'm increasingly of the opinion that explanations become excuses for the inexcusable. And that we're too quick to let people off the hook for the decisions they make.
I have much less sympathy for Smith, and her kidnapping story was disgusting, but I'm not sure she did what she did in cold blood. It didn't seem properly thought-out or logical at that point. I don't think we can completely discount her story that she wanted to kill herself too but backed out at the last moment (she had attempted suicide previously, her father killed himself when her mother divorced him, there were issues with the stepfather....)
No, these are not excuses. But I don't think that case is completely devoid of explanations either.
So right, people and societies work better when people are not given an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. We learn from our failures and from the opprobium of the community when we cross over the lines of civilised behaviour. And we learn by observation.
I don't want to end up like that, we think of the shambling drunk. And so we learn self control because otherwise we can go down the same road. We can trat the drunks or the druggies or whoever humanely without making excuses for them.
Yes our race has a history. The thing is though until 50 years ago they were murderers, wife beaters, abusers, theives. Now they are victims.
Just this week a man in Britain was sentences to life x 3 for murdering his girlfriend and her two daughters here in England.
He has a long history of violence including beating the woman for which he was sent to prison. On being released early on the recommendation of a psychologist and in spite of warnings from prison staff that he was extremely dangerous, he sought out the woman and brutally killed her and her daughters.
And in court, it was reported, he laughed as details of the attack were read out.
The shinks report that got him released had said his childhhod had ben ruined by a violent father. There was no truth in that, but shinks will always believe people who tell them what they want to hear.
I know there have been similar cases over there.
The Devil has always been convenient hasn't he. Especially for fundie preachers.
Many people live in desperate circumstances but manage to hold onto decent values.
But I am all for the welfare state and the social wage. I wouldn't last long in America.
I have no sympathy for Smith. I don't believe her. That doesn't mean she was lying, but I think she was, just like I know when I'm being lied to at work.
I'm not saying I'm not hard-nosed and, in this situation, less than sympathetic. I am. For me, it's a matter of priorities. In order to protect the innocent from prosecution (theoretically), one has to give a certain edge to criminals. You can't keep them from committing crimes the first time. In theory, you can't be arrested "in case" you're going to commit a crime. But I, personally, am tired of giving those that have already sacrificed the rights of others (criminals) the benefit of the doubt at the expense of other potential victims. Sometimes, I think no one worries about the victims of these "misunderstood" criminals.
I feel for Andrea Yates who, now on medication, can realize what she's done. But I weep for the children senselessly lost. And victims get first shot at my sympathy. If I have any left over, I can spare some for criminals. You don't have to agree, by any means. But it's how I see things.
My only point is that we should realize people do not come equipped with the same software, that's all. I certainly don't mean any murderer should go free, especially if there's a chance they would hurt someone else. (I don't know anything about that Galveston Bay guy--I'll try to look it up.)
The lack of head was the rationale behind the jury acquitting the guy (I suppose they assumed his disembodied head might be alive out there somewhere). Just goes to show that Texas has plenty of none-to-brights to fill a jury. Robert Durst.
I understand that we're not all built the same, think the same, have the same software. I guess I just don't think that's enough excuse to hurt others or get away with it. My dad, when I was growing up, made me read about serial killers and rapists; I still read about them. Too many of them, far too many, are released to commit crimes again and again. Look at the serial killing predators we've caught the past 100 years and you'll see that 90% have crime sheets inches thick before they start killing. I do make a distinction between a property crime and a violent crime; in my opinion, some crimes are so heinous the perpetrator should never get the opportunity to commit a similar one. To me, our first priority should be keeping our citizens safe. Like I said, I don't pretend it's "truth", just what I think.