Quite agree, if prison was a more stringent, unpleasant and frightening place then there could be some hope that it would be a deterrent rather than just a slight inconvenience or even less. Stop parole for good behaviour and start extending sentences for bad behaviour, take away all the non productive elements and get tough with the scum.
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM arises out of giving the criminals too much leeway in the way of rights. I'll never forget the case where a person broke into a mans house, injured himself, sued the victim and won in the court of law... What kind of law penalises the victim and puts the criminal on a pedestal? This is the kind of crazy that needs to be weeded out of the legal system. http://www.cracked.com/article_20605_5-victims-horrible-crimes-who-got-sued-by-criminal.html
@Gimlet - I have had to delete your recent post because it was full of incitements to murder, torture, and commit violent attacks. It has crossed the line, several times. The forum cannot condone this kind of post.
If the quality of prison determined anything the south American ones would be empty, but they're not. I guess that depends what you're trying to achieve - rehabilitation/correction or just to get them out of the way. I think the prisons need improving to rehabilitate, but then you also need proper lock downs for repeat offenders. We all know many petty criminals become hardened in jails, the impressionable are radicalized etc. and that needs to be dealt with. That said, our current ideas are way to lax. We all knew that not chasing mopeds would make them the vehicle of choice. The non-prosecution/lenient sentencing reinforces this and courts need to treat a theft as a real crime - in no case after being found guilty should a criminal have to pay less than the victim, steal a £3k motorbike then it's a £6k fine or 6 months for example. No one says "crime doesn't pay" anymore...because obviously it's a lot more lucrative than working!
I think the deterrent is as much to do with the level of investigation/convictions as much as the sentence. Even a sentence of instant death would not deter many crims if only 1 in 1000 get caught and 1 - 10,000 get that sentence as they would see that as acceptable odds. These bike crims know that they will likely not get detected, and if they do not likely chased if they don't wear a helmet and if by chance they get caught, community service which they won't turn up for.
Thanks for the heads-up Mapper899 I live, ride and work in Bristol. Will keep my eyes peeled for scooter-scrotes (and the flip front of my hat down at lights). Which fbook page was that on?
Bought Some Carabiner clips and some lanyards last week. I was chatting with a mate about trackers etc etc and how ive got one but not fitted as i though well, if i fit it then someone else can easily remove it - he gave a bit of an inspired answer....fit it in the airbox! so ill be doing that soon. He said his mate did that to his mx bike, got nicked, went round the blokes house (5 of them) asked the question "wheres my bike" knowing it was in the back garden - bloke replied "i dont know what y...." got a fist in the face - they all went in and recovered the bike....999 was not dialed.
Well done for fending the little shits off. It's really worrying that this is spreading now - the cops have to stamp on it and hard! Makes you wonder if there's some structure to this with some Fagin character organising it and doing all the fencing, breaking etc
