tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588995136414705349.post2192032259385318807..comments2024-03-15T08:05:28.706+00:00Comments on The Sleeping Policeman: A Former Police Officer's Blog: More of the SameLex Ferendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11111622017331655936noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588995136414705349.post-61954166479153730802010-06-26T17:18:52.287+01:002010-06-26T17:18:52.287+01:00Johnson's a fake and exagerates his past to su...Johnson's a fake and exagerates his past to suit an agenda and make a small fortune out of pontificating to those working within the criminal justice system.<br /><br />This is why his writing is so inaccurate, he does no research and has no real experience.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588995136414705349.post-40105084769495964982010-05-12T16:08:15.266+01:002010-05-12T16:08:15.266+01:00Mark Johnson, a reformed drug addict. I'm a re...Mark Johnson, a reformed drug addict. I'm a reformed smoker but does that give me any authority to preach on any subject other than stopping smoking, no of course it doesn't!<br /><br />As an ex copper, however, like many reading this blog I have some very well thought through views on crime, punishment and rehabilitation.<br /><br />I was brought up by caring parents who adopted a balance of 'carrot & stick', work hard at school, treat elders with respect and always say please and thank you when the opportunity presents itself, not simply when required. If I didn't try hard at school I wouldn't be rewarded, if I broke something.....anything that wasn't mine I suffered a punishment that fitted the crime, if I was found to be lying that was considered worse than, or compounding the original offence and punishment was appropriate.<br /><br />Our prisons are overcrowded and that seems to be getting worse at an exponential rate so something society is either doing or neglecting to do is contributing to overcrowding. My belief is that our attempts at rehabilitation are appalling, we continue to educate and inform prisoners whilst inside but simply drop them back into their old environment with little or no help to avoid trouble, something they found impossible to do in the past because it was often presented as the only option.<br /><br />My belief is that we should lock the offenders up but instead of wasting all that money rehabilitating them inside, make it as unpleasant and regimented an environment as we possibly can and spend all the money we waste inside waiting for them at the door of the prison to come out. Rehabilitation can go hand in hand with punishment but not simultaneously, one follows the other and punishment remains punishment, after all it never did me any harm being sent to my room deprived of television then being brought down to discuss the matter before it being filed away in my parents personal CRO file.<br /><br />Is that too simplistic a solution?David Redfernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11778584217788100948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5588995136414705349.post-43101539920200361972010-04-02T20:32:22.774+01:002010-04-02T20:32:22.774+01:00You are, of course, spot on.
Yes, we should feel ...You are, of course, spot on.<br /><br />Yes, we should feel a bit of sympathy with the juvenile perpetrators of crime(though never as much sympathy as we feel for their victims)as they are often the product of bad homes.<br /><br />One of the failures of the parental home of these reprobates is that they have never been set proper, consistent boundaries. Their main boundary is to keep out of the way of Dad when he's drunk. However, even that depends upon Dad's mood.<br /><br />Many schools struggle to help. All too often the school ethos is based on "inclusion" or a similar buzzword. They try to include misbehaving pupils - sorry, "students" - rather than to discipline them.<br /><br />We spend too much time understanding kids rather than showing them the way to go. I can understand male adolescents - I was one, many years ago. I would try it on at every opportunity; would do things my parents had never even heard of, let alone thought of. <br /><br />However, I had boundaries. I knew what would make my parents upset and that to get caught doing so would bring down consequences relative to the misdemeanour. I would do some things, but not others, knowing that the latter would cost me too dearly on the off-chance that I got caught.<br /><br />Some teachers feel they are not allowed to step in, and too many parents feel that they don't need to.<br /><br />Perhaps the criminal justice system needs to take the place of parents. A counsel of despair I know, but what else can we do?Ambulance Amateurhttp://ambulanceamateur.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com