We
all know that prisons in the UK are at breaking point. They are often
overcrowded but the main question is how do you reduce prison
populations? What effective methods or strategy's can you put in place
to help solve the problem? I came up with an idea, and here i will share
it with you.
Firstly i am
all for immigration and this is not a question of stopping people from
coming here to the UK. I have been blessed and honoured to work with
some incredible people in my life from all walks and backgrounds and i
am grateful that we have a society that allows the integration of other
social circles and cultures.
Now
that's out of the way, allow me to bring to you my idea. I was sat
around doing little and reading up on some old articles from a while
ago. One of which was about the prison service and the pressure it is
under to manage an ever growing population. I decided to look over some
figures and statistics and found some surprising numbers popping up. My
idea is simply this, any person whom does not hold or is a British
national should in my opinion be removed from this country and sent back
to their respective nation. I'm not being nasty here but I feel that in
today’s world if you come to this country you should abide by its laws
and customs. At the end of the day if you come to this country you are a
guest until as such a time as you naturalise or are given indefinite
leave to remain therefore if you commit an offence that is deemed to be
serious and a threat to the general public you should be removed from
the country, sent back to your homeland and given a lifetime bar on
entering the country again.
I
know that may come across as harsh but the simple fact is this, if you
cant behave here in my country then you can go home and misbehave there
instead. I understand that victims of crime want to see the perpetrator
punished for what they have done, but most of the time criminals do it
just to go back to prison as they get looked after by the tax payer.
That is just plain wrong. They commit a crime, they get punished for it,
are sent to prison but im then expected to pay for their stay in HM
company! Sorry I don't agree with that.
I
decided to look over the figures and statistics to get a clearer
picture of the total foreign nationals being held in our company and
being paid for by us the hard working tax payer. I expected the numbers
to be much higher than i found. As of June 30th 2013 there were 10,786
foreign nationals being held in in all UK Prisons and are from a total
of 160 different countries, of which 9 accounted for half of the foreign
nationals being detained. Poland, Jamaica and the Irish Republic are
the countries with the most nationals in prisons around the UK.
To
give you some further statistics, the proportion of foreign national
prisoners in the prison population increased steadily over the decade
from 1997. In the early/mid 1990's foreign prisoners accounted for 8% of
the total prison population increasing to approximately 14% by June
2006. Since then the proportion of foreign nationals in prions has
fallen slightly to 13% by June 2011, and remaining at that level since.
So
while we have had a very small decline in the number of foreign
nationals in our prisons it is still 13% of the total prison
population . The current prison population which is a combined total
(included both male and female prisoners) as of November 2014 stands at
85,861. 13% of this figure are foreign nationals which equates to 11,161
(appx) if you were to remove these nationals back to their country of
origin this would drop the prison population to 74,700. That is a huge
drop which is in many cases heavily needed. Currently across the UK
there are 119 prisons, if the total number of foreign nationals were
removed from every prison this would mean a drop of approximately 94
inmates per prison. A reduction that is sorely needed to reduce
overcrowding.
It doesn't
look like a lot when you see the figures in front of you, but seriously
why should the British tax payer have to pay to house foreign criminals
when the money that would be spent on holding them could pay for them to
be sent back to their country of origin. The average cost of a single
prison place in England & Wales only was £36,808. If all foreign
nationals were removed from the country and returned to their country of
origin this could, if the cost of a prison place is the same figure for
all three justice jurisdictions, (England & Wales, Northern Ireland
& Scotland) would equate to a saving of £410,814,088. Money that is
badly badly sought after.
That
£410 million is nearly a quarter of the NHS weekly spending budget. Yes
that's right the NHS spends nearly £2 billion a week which equates to
nearly £104 billion per year. Take the saving of £410 million from
removing all foreign nationals back to their country of origin and this
equates to nearly £22 billion per year saved on housing them in our
prisons and saving the tax payer money as well. That money could be used
elsewhere, for example the recruiting for more prison officers, more
police, more nurses more doctors, the list goes on and on. Surely this
idea is much much clearer and presents a saving that in this current day
and age is sorely needed especially with our current deficit.
I
know im going to get bashed and be told im this and that but believe me
i am not in anyway discriminating against any one, i am simply
presenting an idea that when you get down to the brass tax of it all
actually ends up being a very hard idea to refuse and ignore especially
when you consider the savings to the public purse and to the tax payer
as well.
Obviously
this is an idea, there would be a lot more planning involved to make it
become reality but i generally think the time is nigh that we need to
really get a grip on things. I for one would be all for it, especially
when it could save such a vast amount of money that could be better used
elsewhere.
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