There was much focus on Government services over the past week and questions of how deep can budgets be cut before it affects the administering of a public service. Ideologically for Conservatives, locking up criminals is a staple of maintaining law and order on the streets and protecting ordinary citizens. Yet, The Times lead with the story that six prisons may need to be shut as the Department of Justice looks for budget reductions, something sure to unsettle most Tory voters. Also, an European ruling found that Britain was in breach of prisoners’ rights by not allowing them to vote in elections or referenda. The approach of how we deal with prisoners is bound to create discussion amongst politicians because it poses questions of finance, authority and the role of prison itself i.e. to punish or to rehabilitate. In America, there has been a growth recently in the use of ‘supermax’ prisons, intertwined with solitary confinement.
Both countries share the values of Common Law, yet our attitudes to law and order vary greatly; most notably through some States use of capital punishment. Yet, it is the use of measures like solitary confinement that show the gulfs in treatment. In practice it is remaining in one’s cell without interaction or stimulus, something outlawed in the American constitutuion. Studies show it can lead to mental illnesses and depression, yet the US State department deems this as a legitimate way of treating some felons; and many would agree. It appears hard to gauge how we could stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with America, when our attitudes to treating prisoners are entirely different. The British did not have the best record during ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, however it didn’t affect the civil liberties of ordinary citizens nor prisoners.
The recent Freedom of Information releases in Poland indeed indict American agents in torture and that members of the British Security Services were aware of these occurrences (this has been denied by the British Government, but many leading figures believe that agents were complicit.) You could argue that torture is effective if it leads to information and that moral legitimacy can be shifted in the interests of national security. It does however weaken the often ‘megaphone diplomacy’ of human rights and democracy to countries like China and Turkey, if we meddle in such acts ourselves. France and Britain both have colonial memories of how ‘justice’ can swathe opinion against the so called good: Algeria and Ireland.
Prison should be a tool to punish the criminals of society and deter others from entering the world of crime. Solitary confinement and torture should be left to the annals of Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Mao’s China and Apartheid South Africa, ugly and shocking aspects of history. I am unsure of the importance of the European ruling and question whether it would really have an impact. It is a case of whether you believe prisoners should have a say on society or should be observers away from the polling booths. 85,000 and counting.
Both countries share the values of Common Law, yet our attitudes to law and order vary greatly; most notably through some States use of capital punishment. Yet, it is the use of measures like solitary confinement that show the gulfs in treatment. In practice it is remaining in one’s cell without interaction or stimulus, something outlawed in the American constitutuion. Studies show it can lead to mental illnesses and depression, yet the US State department deems this as a legitimate way of treating some felons; and many would agree. It appears hard to gauge how we could stand ‘shoulder-to-shoulder’ with America, when our attitudes to treating prisoners are entirely different. The British did not have the best record during ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, however it didn’t affect the civil liberties of ordinary citizens nor prisoners.
The recent Freedom of Information releases in Poland indeed indict American agents in torture and that members of the British Security Services were aware of these occurrences (this has been denied by the British Government, but many leading figures believe that agents were complicit.) You could argue that torture is effective if it leads to information and that moral legitimacy can be shifted in the interests of national security. It does however weaken the often ‘megaphone diplomacy’ of human rights and democracy to countries like China and Turkey, if we meddle in such acts ourselves. France and Britain both have colonial memories of how ‘justice’ can swathe opinion against the so called good: Algeria and Ireland.
Prison should be a tool to punish the criminals of society and deter others from entering the world of crime. Solitary confinement and torture should be left to the annals of Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Mao’s China and Apartheid South Africa, ugly and shocking aspects of history. I am unsure of the importance of the European ruling and question whether it would really have an impact. It is a case of whether you believe prisoners should have a say on society or should be observers away from the polling booths. 85,000 and counting.
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