When I lived in England I should have been a career criminal. I’d most probably have made a great deal more money than I have done legitimately. Mind you, this is only in the UK. Being a criminal in Iran or any other country living under Shia law can have disastrous consequences. A man who stole chocolate from a shop has been sentenced to a year in prison and to have his hand chopped off.
It has to be genuinely frustrating for the police to actually nick a criminal (as opposed to the poor motorist) only to find the judge saying naughty naughty, slap on the wrist and don’t do it again. The problem of what to do with criminals in society has never been solved. Even when prison was something to be dreaded, or worse, it didn’t stop crime. Today it would seem that prison is a holiday camp. I don’t speak from experience of course. The only time I have been in an actual prison cell was in Wandsworth during the filming of the TV “The Lost Boys”, but someone we know was sent to prison (this was before the days of the ASBO) for possession of marijuana and, after six months, came out a hundred percent fitter than when he went in the food and the amenities were so good. Now there are those who say that is the way it should be, it shows how civilised we are and how we respect yuman rights. But what about the yuman rights of those who are the victims of crime? Is that purely coincidental? Not everyone is compensated and criminals these days, thanks to the directives of the EU and yuman rights, literally get away with murder. So he was sent to prison for being in possession, a minor offence and one that is committed every day by hundreds and thousands of people. It wasn’t as though he was dealing and surely in this case a community service order would have been a more logical way to deal with it rather than have the taxpayers shelling out thousands of pounds to keep him in comfort for six months.
Evidently almost 2,700 criminals have been sentenced to community service after having been found guilty of 50 offences or more. An MP has said “These statistics show what a joke the criminal justice system has become. You have to work very hard to get to prison these days.”
Whatever happened to life sentences for murder? That’s even more of a joke. A killer is given fifteen years and on appeal it is drastically reduced so he is once more at large. Shawn Higgins, a criminal from the age of eleven was spared jail after amassing over 60 convictions in nine years. In November 2008 a judge jailed him for two years, four months, for car crime. Higgins unfortunately was released on licence after serving only half his sentence. Four weeks later he spotted a yellow MG in a driveway with its motor running. A Mrs Sankey whose car it was tried to stop Higgins, who had jumped into the driver’s seat, from stealing it but he drove straight at her, catapulting her in the air like a rag doll. She died later in hospital. Higgins pleaded guilty to various charges including manslaughter. The judge jailed him indefinitely, ordering him to serve at least six years.
Since when did indefinitely become six years? – not much for taking a life is it?

PS: And I haven’t spelt Human rights wrongly. I think yuman rights sounds better.