Take a different view

19/Dec/2011

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Comments: 2 readers have left a comment

I AM sure most of us have seen the perceptual illusion in which the brain switches between seeing an old witch and a stylish young woman.

In recent debates about sending offenders to prison and imposing longer sentences, a lot of people only appear to see the old witch.

How about we turn our view and our attitude just slightly.

Is it really the solution to send people to jail for longer? Will they be released as the complying citizens we wish them to be? Very unlikely.

Of those who have been sent to prison, half are sentenced to either prison or committed to community service within two years of their last imprisonment. This does not sound like a solution that works: we are trying it and it is failing.

As a society it is time we approach social justice a different way. Let’s start investing in the front end of community development – would it not be better to prevent offending rather than to just build more prisons?

What everyone else is thinking

Mark Churms

19/12/2011

I am also a believer that prevention is better than playing catchup after the event. I have heard of a company (SmartWater) that does just this and is evidenced to remove the will of the criminal to commit crime before any crime has been committed.
The company claim that they WILL deter at least 80% of crime and evidence this fact!
The old Minister of Police Rob Johnson stated that crime prevention was not his problem but the problem of the Police? Yes it confuses me also. As for the Police they have been looking at SmartWater for over 4 years! Clearly they do not see the importance of preventing crime in the same way as the general public, had they have done so many injured parties would not have become victims of crime.
It is time that Ministers and the Police provide the professional service that they are being paid to do and make Australia a safe place to live in when obvious answers are readily at hand, but maybe their ivory towers and fat payslips insulates them from reality?