British Justice... What British Justice??

Whilst walking home form the bus stop in the next village with our dog Bonnie, I came across some damage to a building caused by some mindless vandals. This made me consider the state of the British Justice system.

There is seldom a day goes by when there is an article in the daily press highlighting the inconsistencies of British Justice. It all depends on how convincing the defence or prosecution Lawyers are in twisting the evidence in their favour.

I would love to see a change in the way some crimes are treated. For instance theft and vandalism. In most cases, the criminals are given a fine, or community service orders. Only the most prolific offenders are given a custodial sentence. Even then, they may be given a few years, possibly 3 or 4, but the sentence is invariably reduced, for a variety of reasons. In reality they will only serve less than half the original length allocated by the Judge.

I know this would never be accepted by Human Rights brigade, but why not have a simple system of Justice for thieves and vandals. Any thief or vandal must pay back the cost, of what they stole or damaged. The court costs should be included in the total amount to be repaid.

Now most of the criminals, would be unable to pay back that sort of money. So then they are sent to prison, and must work at some trade within the prison. Their labour is given a value that is consistent with the value payed to law abiding citizens who get paid with board and lodgings included in their pay. The criminals will then have to stay in prison until the debt is paid. It is entirely up to them how quickly they want to get out of prison. The harder they work, the quicker they get out of prison. More importantly, the criminals will know exactly how long they will be incarcerated for. It will be entirely up to them how long they stay in prison for, and not a decision for some parole board that the British Tax payer has to pay their salaries, so that they can make the decision to let the criminal out prison early, to allow the criminal to continue his/her life of crime.

This system would have many advantages. It would discourage repeat offending, as most criminals steal because they don't want to work and buy the items they covet. Vandals have no idea of the cost of the damage they cause. I think they would certainly think twice about causing more damage knowing the consequences of their actions.

The only problem I can see with this idea, is that there is simply not enough prison space, to implement this kind if Justice. Also, probably the Prison service is not geared up to provide this form of punishment. I am also sure the thieves and vandals would not want this sort of Justice!