Prison really should be a last resort (barring murderers,sex offenders and violent crimes).Prison should only be for those whose offences that are so serious that they cannot do some form of community service or serve their 'punishment' in other ways.In fact most prisoners pose no real threat to life and limb of others but their crimes are committed to feed a drug,drink habit or for economical reasons.
Maybe we should look at alternatives for instance some minor offenders lose their jobs because of being incarcerated.Why not keep them at work and bang them up at the weekends therefore depriving them of their leisure and or family time.
Another alternative would be to stay at work and then put them on community service at the weekends.
In the States to combat youth crime they have introduced after school centres which led to a 27% reduction in youth related crime and resulted in 4 prisons being closed.
Night detention with a tag system is widely used and should be expanded.
Other countries have reduce media coverage for two reasons so as to protect the victims and prevent the crims becoming notorious 'celeb' type figures.It steals their 15 minutes of being famous.
Basically these are to treat current offenders and reduce the prison population but the real answer lies in parental guidance and responsibilty and a better education system. Most offenders derive from bad and broken homes where at least one family member is a previous inmate and most are illiterate. That in itself speaks volumes. I shall now await the forumite flak to arrive
