Should the death penalty be re-introduced in the United Kingdom?

[ISniffCheese]

I think it should be brought back if the person being executed has caused mass damage to one+ people.

[GommeInc]

Sorry to veer off-topic, but....

1. Imprisonment already is cheaper than the death penalty.

2. All prisons are different, and catagorised to reflect this. A-Cat and B-Cat prisons hold the (theoretically) most dangerous prisoners and have the highest security measures in place. Security is the No. 1 reason why it costs so much to house prisoners, not because they're some kind of holiday camps which you are trying to infer and have no evidence to back up. Also, A-Cat and B-Cat prisons have considerably less luxuries and privileges than C-Cat and Open Prisons which are actually cheaper to run.

3. Repeat offenders end up back in a life of crime because our rehabilitation system, to be frank, is ****e. Prisons are chronically underfunded and understaffed, which has an adverse effect on education and work programmes which in some prisons have been cut. There's also the issue that education classes in prisons receive less allowance than prison work, such as cleaners, so there's little incentive to bother. Another issue is the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and the CRB system which shows no mercy. In this country you can't be prevented from a wide range of jobs for simply having an investigation run on you by the police, even if it results in no charge, it is still a black mark on your record which can be legally disclosed. People with petty records are never given the chance to have their records forgotten, more jobs these days require a standard or enhanced CRB check where convictions always have to be disclosed, even if they are 20 years old and spent.

So, logically, repeat offenders may decide they want to go on the straight and narrow, but when they quickly learn they cannot even get a menial job and have to rely on state handouts, many go back into crime to supplement their income. Not because they enjoy prison. The only ones that "enjoy" prison are the ones that have been locked up for so long (30+ years) that they're institutionalised beyond repair and are only comfortable with prison discipline, this would be true even if prisons resembled the Shawshank Penitentiary in Shawshank Redemption. Exact same reason why some people can't cope living out of the military or a psychiatric hospital after being in so long and end up homeless or/and committing suicide or in another institution (there's a shocking number of ex-forces veterans now in prison).

BTW I don't say this to "feel sorry" for people in prison, but it's not hard to see that our entire system needs an overhaul. Personally I think we should look to emulate countries like Norway, Sweden or the Netherlands rather than what we have now, or worse, the USA.

There's quite a few books/studies on the subject, I suggest Jeffrey Archer's Prison Diaries. They might be 10 years old now, but there's a few insightful home truths and facts in those.

1. Hence why I said it would be a lot cheaper Do you have a source to go with your comment that it is already cheaper? I've been trying to find a reliable source within the last few years but can never come across any. It would be most useful

2. According to jim Dawkins. we do seem to have quite a luxurious prison system compared to others across the globe. He isan ex-prison guard who wrote the book "The Loose Screw", and wrote about his time in prison and found that luxuries seem useless when prisoners do not have a use for them -arguing they can cause bullying in the prison system and a hierarchy of who has the best stuff. A-Cat to C-Cat prisons shouldn't really have a need for them, and would cost quite a lot of expense, arguably focusing on what's really important - getting them rehabilitated in a neutral, empty environment. He compares it to Queen Victoria delaying the opening of Wandsworth Prison because she did not see why inmates needed toilets which were seen as a luxury item (a bed pan would of been fine, and was a custom- times were obviously different). He also discusses bullying which is seen as a huge problem with rehabilitation, even from prison officers, which I'm sure you're aware of?.

3. Agreed, our rehabilitation system isn't all that great. They've brought in some measures, such as meeting the victims face to face in cases which involve burglary, which apparently has helped but there's been no conclusive evidence and it is only being tried in one of the Midlands counties while other counties seem to have them write to their victums. So,e prisoners just do it because it's something to do (there was an interesting programme and a few studies not so long ago). Did you hear or read that there is the idea of shipping them off to the Netherlands/Denmark? I think it is covered by an EU directive but I've never properly read in to it - it could just be a rumour built upon the overcrowding issue.

[andoo89]

no for the simple reason of a - miscahrige of justice. an innocent person being convicted of a crime they didn't commit. does happen.

[Foregetfuhl]

I've always been one of those people stuck in the middle. My mum is very adamant that it should be brought in, but only if the family members of the victim are allowed to inflict the death penalty upon the murderer or rapist or whatever it may be. However.. I'm kind of in two minds after studying law for the past two years..

When you get things such as evidence or factors etc. it doesn't necessarily prove that someone actually committed the murder. It could be for a number of reasons there DNA is there.. The amount of cases we have looked at in Uni where people who have been sent down for murders etc. when they aren't actually guilty is absurd. But then again there are soo many people who actually get away with what they have done. I think that if someone kills someone and it is a proven fact that they have and they admit to it they deserve everything that's coming to them. But you need to be careful as you could kill someone who is innocent of the crime.

I think that the prison conditions don't help. They get three square meals a day, there basic human rights are still enforced. How someone who has committed a crime like that can still be allowed his human rights is beyond me. You get these people sitting watching television, playing video games, going outside playing football and doing whatever the hell they want in their cells. Why should they live their live in prison with all these things, when some people don't even have them. And another thing, why do they deserve to be released after ten years of whatever when they have taken the life of someone. Life should be life. Not Five-Fifteen years.

There are benefits to the death penalty but there are also implications which is why it is so hard to decide and come to a definite conclusion.

[Wig44.]

Wrongful imprisonment is one thing, wrongful execution is far worse. On that basis alone it shouldn't ever be reinstated.

[Mentor]

Hell no. Despite what batman claims "to defeat darkness you must become darkness", thats a totally daft way to look at the world. To steal from R D Hunters act, its the same as say "To defeat obesity, you must first become obese".

If we want to wipe out murder, making the entire population of the UK be a party to state mandated murder is NOT the way to go.

Killing simply results in more killing.

[santa-my-nana]

I personally believe that it should never ever be brought back to the UK. No matter what crime a person has done it is never OK to be just like them and kill them. All human life is precious and yes if they have done wrong say by murder they have done wrong but that gives someone no right to murder them back (its the eye for and eye concept and its highly wrong and outdated, just like sexism and homophobic is outdated)

I vote no