I recently visited St.Helena, an island near Brisbane, where prisoners were held from 1867 to 1933. It is called St. Helena since the first prisoner was an Aborigine named Napoleon. He was left on the island to forage for himself. He built a boat in three days, took off and was never seen again by the authorities.

Two guides, one dressed and acting like a prisoner and the other as a guard, took us around. It was a fascinating tour. There is a museum and the remains of many buildings on the island. Desperate prisoners have committed suicide. There are two graveyards on the island. One for prisoners and one for the children of guards. Most prisoners in the graves were non-Christian being Aborigines, Chinese or Muslims. However, they all had a Christian burial with a Christian service and a stone cross on the grave. If you decide to go on the tour be prepared to do a lot of walking.

I have been held up twice. Both times it was a frightening experience. My home has also been burgled twice. However, it will not help me a bit if those who did it got a harsh punishment.

I think the chief goal of our justice system should be to decrease the likelihood of further crimes.

The definition of crime varies from one time to another. Striking shearers have been imprisoned on St. Helena for actions which would not now be regarded as a crime. I hope that drug use will not be regarded as a crime in the future.

I hope that drug use will not be regarded as a crime in the future.
david f,
If it's not made a serious crime now in order to stop the production of idiotic, dangerous morons then we will have anarchy in less than two decades. We no have such people in the public service costing us more than we can afford. I want to put a stop to this idiocy & so do all sane people.

Dear individual,

Making the production and sale of alcohol a crime in the US during Prohibition merely increased corruption, encouraged the creation of criminal organisations and produced alcoholics. Now that alcoholic addiction is regarded as a medical problem and the production and sale of alcohol is regulated and monitored for safety it is much less of a problem. Making drugs illegal pursues the same stupid path.

It is folly to repeat an action and expect different results. Drug abuse will continue to be a problem whatever is done. However, treating drugs as a controlled and legal substance is, like ending Prohibition, the sensible way to minimise the problem.

....I wouldn’t want to be in any jail regardless of food and other amenities

So David F, would you still feel that way if you were homeless, or more importantly homeless, hungry and unloved/wanted.

I would also suggest many of them are homeless simply because they are of any financial benefit to the welfare dependent parents. Same goes for some non indigenous as well.

As far as rehabilitation goes, you can't expect to rehabilitate a looser, by surrounding him/her with other losers.

This is why I suggest jail should only be for hard criminals.

It is folly to repeat an action and expect different results.
david f,
that's right so why continue with the softly, softly approach of the past 50 years of it failing so spectacularly ?
We are actually converging onto some common ground here. We know that brutal punishment hasn't deterred many & we also know that the slap on the hand doesn't cut it either so let's find a bit of middle ground & try making the crapheads pay for damage & harm.
I found that slapping a craphead around a little in the cop shop & straight to jail for two months sorted him out. That's for stealing a mobile phone. Ah, yes that wasn't in MollycoddlethecriminalAustralia, it was north of us. The harshest punishment stories I have heard of are from the jail on Daru. They're so incredible that even I find it hard to believe.

Dear rehctub,

I agree with most of your last post. My father used to own a bar - a fairly seedy place. One of the cooks was unreliable - a good cook when he was sober. In Syracuse where we lived it used to get quite cold in the winter. This cook would every fall do something to get into the Onondaga penitentiary. He would get his sentence of six months and report to the penitentiary kitchen. He was warm and had a place for the winter paid by the Onondaga county taxpayers. Probably kept him from falling asleep some night outdoors drunk and freezing to death.

He was not a hardened criminal. He was a loser, but I think it was better to let him spend a winter in the county pen & not freeze to death.

Dear individual,

I think with some people it doesn't matter what approach you take. Whatever you do when they get out they are going to do it again. Since they are human you treat them like human beings. All treating them like sh-t does is to give some people satisfaction. Nothing you do is going to matter so you might as well treat them decently. I had a cousin who was a psychologist and worked for the city of LA. He told me that the cure rate for addicts was less than 5%. It makes sense to legalise drugs. If you do dealers will not make a profit, police will not get payoffs from the dealers, druggies will not have to commit crime to get money for a fix and drugs will be monitored for quality. Not legalising drugs means the trade goes on inside and outside the prisons.