Mature Times - Crime & Punishment

"Visible Justice" - you respond

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:24:59 +0100

"My own view is that we do not actually have a justice system, only a penal system; I also hold the view that, often, the correlation between law and justice is very low." You respond to the Director of Public Prosecution's article on "Making Justice Visible".

Illegal drivers and paltry fines

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:21:01 +0100

Recently Ian Austin, M P, drew the attention of Jack Straw and Jacqui Smith to the continuing menace of un-insured and other illegal drivers and the threats they pose to legal drivers and all other road users.

Public shaming does work

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:53:47 +0100

In your March issue of MT you raised public shaming as a crime prevention method and deterrent equivalent to the stocks - it used to work.

What's the answer to teenage yobbery?

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:11:34 +0000

Many of these yobs are dregs of society, not because of their own fault alone but often because our generation or our children's generation have not shown parental responsibility.

You couldn't make it up

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 08:36:07 +0000

So who is going to catch these felons and imprison them? I think I last saw a policeman on foot was in about 1963, or was it 64?

National Service: curse or cure?

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:16:18 +0000

As one of our readers calls for the return of National Service to reduce crime and 'yob culture' and to help protect our country, we ask; what do you think? Would National Service solve some of our society's problems?

Cannabis Confessions

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:30:09 +0100

You're quite right about not fussing over whether Cameron smoked dope when he was fifteen. Who cares?

Criminals should pay the price

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:19:38 +0000

The letter from your correspondent Mr Norman Richards in your February edition opposing the death penalty for certain catagories of murder cannot go unchallenged.

Brutal paedophiles who abuse and slaughter children, ruthless killers who snuff out the lives of those victims whom they rob, as well as vicious criminals who murder police officers, are amongst those who forfeit the right to life and they should pay the ultimate penalty

Why should they be fed and maintained in comparative comfort at taxpayers' expense?

Crime is out of control in Britain and it qualifies for 'the Queen's Award to Industry' and it costs more to keep a criminal in prison than to send a pupil to Eton.

Take a tough line in prisons

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:35:06 +0000

Joe Arpaio is the Maricopa County Sheriff in Arizona, Texas, he keeps getting elected over and over again. I suggest these are some of the reasons why:

He created the "tent city jail" to save Arizona from spending tens of million of dollars on another expensive prison complex.

He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
He banned smoking and porno magazines in the jails, and took away their weightlifting equipment. He says: "they're in jail to pay a debt to society not to build muscles so they can assault innocent people when they leave."

What justice: I agree

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:22:58 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Evans Jones' letter (January 2007) called "What Justice?". My sentiments entirely and I suspect just about every right thinking person's too. But what can we do to ensure this very good advice is taken seriously and followed through?

Prisoners deserve a second chance

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:09:13 +0000

Your reader Evan Jones (Letters MT, January 2007) may have come from a broken home and remained law-abiding despite it, but times have change since the 1940s, and many now in prison need rehabilitation rather than punishment, their conduct having arisen from perhaps anger, rather than criminality as such.

Justice - an unfailing test of civilisation

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:51:06 +0000

I was interested to read Evan Jones's panacea for eliminating crime together with the criminal ('What Justice?" MT January 2007). It might be helpful if he read a little social history.

What have people got to hide?

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:54:15 +0000

I am totally in favour of ID cards, we had them during the war and they did us no harm (I still have mine). The Human Rights idiots obviously have something to hide!

ID cards WON'T solve our problems

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 14:37:06 +0000

Your article on ID cards hits a hot nerve with myself and a lot of other people disagreeing with them.

Inside Justice - what justice?

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:04:50 +0000

We are told the prisons are full and there is no more room. Is it any wonder? Prisons used to be places of foreboding. Now, they are little more than colleges of further education. Every kind of course for work skills can be taken, most forms of leisure pursuit can be followed, while good quality food and heated accommodation is automatic.