The keys to the asylum
What lunatic thought up this policy?
From the
Daily Mail:
Convicts handed keys to the cell
Thousands of prisoners are being given keys to their cells in the latest farce to hit the criminal justice system.
They can roam in and out virtually at will under a scheme designed to give them more "respect and decency".
The astonishing measure prompted a furious response from MPs last night, who warned that the human-rights culture was out of control.
It will provoke a furious public backlash at a time when prisons are overflowing and dangerous offenders are being tagged and freed into the community.
Official figures revealed that 5,747 of the 9,577 offenders in Yorkshire prisons have keys for 'privacy locks' to protect themselves and their belongings.
Although many of them are at open prisons and youth offenders' institutes, others are in standard closed prisons for those who have committed serious crimes such as muggings, burglary and theft.
It also emerged that some youth prisons now call offenders 'trainees' or 'residents'.
Governors in other parts of the country are also understood to have introduced the key scheme.
Shipley Tory MP Philip Davies accused the Government of "turning prisons into hotels".
He said: "People will be horrified to know so many prisons give inmates their own keys. It will reinforce their views that the regime is far too lax and cushy.
"These people are banged up for a reason. But the Government seems more concerned about the human rights of criminals than those of their victims, who are footing the bill to keep them in increasingly pleasant surroundings."
Blair Gibbs, director of the Tax-Payers' Alliance, said: "It is hard to believe we live in a serious country any more when you hear lunacy like this. Our politicians are clearly not capable of running anything that resembles an effective criminal justice system."
Kind of removes the incentive to stay out of of prison... A perfect example of muzzy-headed thinking masquerading as politically correct thought.
Posted by DaveH at March 26, 2007 1:34 PM