GAOLS AND CORONA VIRUSTo help stop the spread of the Corona virus consideration is now being given to reducing the number of people in gaol.News reports suggest that a primary fcus may be on those serving long-term sentences for the most serious crimes.
Perhaps more attention should be given to those with less serious offences .These form the bulk of the gaol population.
t Aside from the greater numbers ,there is not the same potential for placing the community at risk and alienating community opinion. Not all long-term prisoners would pose a threat in the community*. But there are some who would .
It is possible for prisoners who committed the most serious of offences to retain their underlying motivations
while 'gliding through the system ' and gaining support from custodial staff for keeping younger prisoners in line .

For prisoners whose offences are less serious. the community may be better served by their early release on conditional liberty.The main aim of that would be to give them opportunities for personal development and to give them support . In probation and parole . I was involved as a co-facilitator In groups conducted for just released parolees .These groups worked very well ,with most participants benefiting from them. The group focus was on goal setting and on the appropriate expression of emotions. One third of group participants had never given expression to their emotions
and their eyes widened when they saw that there was a vocabulary for doing that.F

John Maher
B.A Dip.Crim.



Author's background : 35 years in the Probation and Parole Service .

ADDRESS : 15 Cragside Place , Glenhaven 2156
email : johnmaher14@hotmail.com
Phone :02 9634 7229

7 April 2020


07/04/2020, 08:34:40

Theoretically speaking a prison provides one of the easiest environments to manage during a viral outbreak. Why? Because:
1) By the very nature of a prison the prisoners are already isolated from the rest of the community with limited contacted to those outside.
2) It is easy to restrict those inside from interacting or to isolate them from others inside. Eg: It is easy to partition the population into those who are infected and those who aren't.
3) You can effortlessly direct/order them to do what you want/need them to do
4) You don't have to give much concern about the public image of your actions. For example you can manage the prisoners without having to worry about them having much kick-back by way of public/social media.
5) It is easy to manage and track their movements to determine who they have interacted with.
5) It is easy to monitor the prevalence of the virus within the population.
6) A prison is a very controlled environment which makes cleaning/disinfecting them easier than other environments.

The China virus isn't bad enough. Let the cons out. And this bloke gives his contact details! Gawd almighty.

I welcome any initiative to reduce the number of people in prison - rain or shine, Corona or otherwise.

Locking up people in prison is an horrific act of cruelty - how can any human do such a gruesome thing to others?

The only justification for locking people up is when they pose a reasonable and unacceptable PRESENT danger to others and no other remedies are possible. Even then, those locked up should be allowed the most humane conditions possible and only be restricted to the extent that is necessary to prevent them from harming others. And even then, prisoners should always be allowed the option of death instead, if so they choose.

Whence this sick idea as if people have a right to punish each other? Should punishment be necessary, leave it up to God, this deliberate infliction of terrible pain on others is just so sick, so sick.

Locking up people in prison is an horrific act of cruelty
Yuyutsu,
By far not as cruel as being robbed or assaulted for no reason !
To ignore that pain & loss inflicted on victims is just so sick, so sick !

Dear Individual,

Why compare one pain with another - no pain is to be ignored, but one pain cannot cure another.

Being robbed or assaulted is indeed very unpleasant, but is never for no reason - only the reason can be hidden and necessarily be something similar or equivalent that the "victim" has caused in the past, whether recently or long time ago.

Revenge is senseless: when one causes pain to another, whatever be the reason, they incur the demerit-karma which in time will fructify in the form of further pain to the revenger. How primitive and what a foolish thing to do!

Come off the stupidity Yuyutsu.

People who commit crime & go to prison for it have chosen their path, & deserve everything they get. With our powder puff judges & parole system they probably deserve twice what they have got.

Their victims have done nothing wrong, but have been violated by the criminal. Tripling all sentences may not have a corrective influence on criminals, but most surely reduce crime, as it is hard to break & enter some ones home from prison.

At this time, when the police are busy with many other duties, & quite a few are in self imposed isolation because of some of those duties, the last thing we need is an epidemic of crime, encouraged by releasing the criminals & reducing the policing.

Yuyutsu,
You're obviously a Public Servant who doesn't have to worry about where the next pay comes from !

Dear Hasbeen,

I can see where you are coming from:

It is typical of those who have no faith in God, to think that the world is chaotic and man is the only entity able to create some order within that chaos. Had God not been in charge, then it is understandable for men to try to fill this vacuum in their clumsy ways, attempting to take up as much of His role they can.

But since God does know precisely what we deserve, since nothing is hidden from Him, it is appropriate to leave the task of justice to Him rather than try and mess up with His work which He can carry far better than any of us.

The claim that "victims" have done nothing wrong is short-sighted: have you ever met anyone who has done nothing wrong? It might have been long ago and the "victim" might have forgotten about it, but nothing can happen for "no reason" assuming we live in a cosmos rather than in a chaos.

Nobody wants to be violated, but the wise, if violated, pray: "Thank you Lord for helping me to pay my debts. Please strengthen my spirit and my resolve that in future I do only good and never again violate others so I do not need to be violated like this again".

I already acknowledged that in some minority of cases, imprisonment might be the only way to prevent future crimes and might therefore be excused, but that is an horrific thing to experience on the receiving side and so the consequences are horrific for those who inflict imprisonment on others. If one still needs to imprison others in order to prevent future crimes, then:
1) This should never be out of revenge.
2) This should never apply to those who already repented sincerely, or who otherwise (perhaps due to age or disability) are incapable of committing further crimes.
3) Potential-criminals should not be deprived of anything beyond what is truly necessary to prevent future crimes.
4) The optional alternative of death in-place of imprisonment should never be denied.

Dear Individual,

I have never been a public servant, because that would commonly require adherence to immoral orders by my would-be-superiors. Also, it would mean the acceptance of tax-payer's money in salary, which would render me either a thief or a robber.

As I saved enough and always lived within my means, I need not worry now where the next pay comes from.

Yuyutsu,
Does that mean you'd support a call for Top Bureaucrats/PublicServants salaries to be reduced so that blue collar workers wages' are worth more ?

Yuyutsu imprisonment is merely cause & effect.

Those who choose to be anti social & break the laws of the society they share have actually chosen to go to prison. They knew the law & chose to break it, knowing the penalty for their actions.

If there is any fault in others it is in our judges who continually let law breakers off with a slap on the wrist, actually training them to expect no retribution for their antisocial behavior.

I have no objection in you believing some make believe "god", but don't start expecting the more rational amongst us to follow any fool dictates of that belief. the real world has other interests & problems.

Dear Individual,

«Does that mean you'd support a call for Top Bureaucrats/PublicServants salaries to be reduced so that blue collar workers wages' are worth more ?»

No, this is not implied from anything I said so far on this thread.

But since you asked, yes, I believe that it would be a good idea.

---

Dear Hasbeen,

«Those who choose to be anti social & break the laws of the society they share have actually chosen to go to prison.»

A few may have made that choice, but this is certainly not the general case.
Also, when have we ever been given the choice whether or not to share a society with each other and accept its laws? Some have indeed made this choice, but many others did not and could well be described as "victims" of society!

Note also that some of those who go to prison (including Cardinal Pell) broke no laws - have they also chosen to go to prison?

«but don't start expecting the more rational amongst us to follow any fool dictates of that belief.»

Then don't start expecting people of faith to follow the fool dictates of your society. If you force your society and its laws over others who share not your world-view and interests, then these are the actions of immoral brutes.

Yuyutsu,
How would you like to deal with people who stole nearly everything you have accumulated ?
Give them a cup of tea & Cuddle them ?
And, when you're broke have some insipid Magistrate tell you that there's nothing that can be done other than pay the culprit's legal defence ?

our legal system, on some issues, is too soft.

Dear Individual,

«How would you like to deal with people who stole nearly everything you have accumulated ?»

If possible, I would try to get what I lost back.
If not, then it means that I deserved to lose what I had, possibly because I did not earn it in honest ways.

Locking others in prison would be most foolish: it would not bring back what I lost and instead only bring me further pain. Was it not enough that I lost it all that I must also undergo imprisonment or something equivalent? No, thanks!

Yuyutsu,

Do you think that someone who is being assaulted for no apparent reason could consider that his life is in danger and may respond with deadly force?

Personally I do so think and further I think that anyone attempting to force entry into my home intends to kill me.

I don't think that in these cases the offenders should go to prison, I think that the only logical response is that they should be stopped in their aggression by being killed.

Dear Is Mise,

Self defense is excusable.
It is short of ideal, but then how many of us live a perfect ideal life? Not me anyway.

So yes, if you believe that your life, or that of your family, is in danger, then you may respond with deadly force.

«Personally I do so think and further I think that anyone attempting to force entry into my home intends to kill me.»

Or is desperate for toilet paper. You need to be careful.

Yes, the only ones who might need to go to prison are those who are reasonably liable to do it again, so it ought to be based on the future, not the past. If you kill them instead, then you are likely to cause less suffering than by throwing them in jail, but you need to aim well so you do not leave them crippled and disabled.

Yuyutsu,
I must be brutally honest here, I simply cannot fathom your mentality !

I can't fathom the let-people-out-of-jail-because-of-the-Chinese virus twaddle. There have been some pretty stupid ideas pass through OLO. This one gets the grand prize.

Yuyutsu,

"Or is desperate for toilet paper. You need to be careful."

No problem, I've lived with Muslims and served with Muslim soldiers.

The left hand is mightier than any toilet roll!!

It's not immediately apparent how opening up a branch of Weight Watchers in a prison would be of significant benefit to society, or to the inmates.

Contributors here so far seem to have entirely missed the point.

Yuyutsu, greetings: Once you understand that mercy is the suspension or contravention of justice then all your lachrymose hand-wringing and obsequious self-abnegation becomes so much twaddle.

If your 15-year-old daughter's body was found stripped naked, raped and beaten to death and the perp was an average 20-year-old who claimed she led him on and he lost his temper.......you'd be more concerned about his fate would you? After all, nothing could restore your daughter undamaged to you. So castrating him with a blunt hacksaw then tying him face up and sprinkled all over with honey to pegs on top of a fire ant mound would never enter your mind? If it were my daughter, I'd open a beer and hot dog stand with a prize offered for the best foto of the event published on FB.

Dear Pogi,

Castration may or may not be useful in the case you described, in order to prevent future attacks on other girls. The experts might tell us that this is not enough and only a bullet to the head can protect the girls. Fair enough.

Feeding the fire-ants, however, would be the most unwise thing to do, because then you would incur a terrible karma so you too will be fed to fire-ants or have to endure some similar painful death, if not in this life-time than in some future life. The thought of doing so could occur to anyone, but you should use your intelligence to override such detrimental thoughts and emotions and replace them with thoughts of kindness.