Should there be a curfew for people under 18 years to reduce crime? [ENDS 28/02/10]

[Tash.]

..and the simple solution that you are missing and that this government is missing is; BUILD MORE PRISONS.

Ok, where? You don't have much faith in human intelligence if you don't think that highly educated people such as the people who are in charge of this country haven't thought of that. It's not as simple as "oh, we need new prisons. Okay, here we'll build one for you." And you know it. You claim to be a boffin on all things political and economical to do with this country yet you haven't seemed to notice the blatantly obvious. We do not have the money nor the resources, nor the space to go building prisons willy nilly. These things take years to consult about nevermind build.

[luce]

The prisons are already overcrowded though, there is no space to put every teenager who commits a crime in prison.. Even less so is there space to put in prison every parent of a kid who commits a crime. Not only that but would you propose putting both parents in prison or just the 1? Because really that opens up a whole other can of worms about where you put the children while their parents are in jail. Further to this, how is it fair on the parents if they have 1 child who is causing untold problems when their other children are well behaved and do not get into trouble with the law? Because believe me that happens.

Yes i know the prisons are overcrowded HOWEVER everyone gets out sometime? (well most people with this **** "life" policy we have) So when we implement this we will have a stage where the prison will be massively over crowded BUT when people realize that they will go to prison for doing that petit crime then they won't so less people will be going in so it will end up being more going out then coming in instead of the other way around hence solving the overcrowding problem.

On the point you made about the "one bad child" well if you have one bad child who you need help with or have fears about then send them to a hospital for help? Or something like that it's the responsibility of that parent to deal with it and not just say OH MY CHILD IS BAD, DAM! You know common sense?

And the point you made about which parent and who do you put in well i believe that no one will commit crime so there will be no need to use it. I know what i just said was idealistic and there is a flaw there but if you want to implement a parent punishment system ranging from a fine, their benefits cut, or prison then it would stop.

Ok, where? You don't have much faith in human intelligence if you don't think that highly educated people such as the people who are in charge of this country haven't thought of that. It's not as simple as "oh, we need new prisons. Okay, here we'll build one for you." And you know it. You claim to be a boffin on all things political and economical to do with this country yet you haven't seemed to notice the blatantly obvious. We do not have the money nor the resources, nor the space to go building prisons willy nilly. These things take years to consult about nevermind build.

they may be highly educated but the government leading the UK at the moment are in no way what so ever highly intelligent. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess.

What you could always do is what we used to do and send everyone to one country like Australia..

[-:Undertaker:-]

Ok, where? You don't have much faith in human intelligence if you don't think that highly educated people such as the people who are in charge of this country haven't thought of that. It's not as simple as "oh, we need new prisons. Okay, here we'll build one for you." And you know it. You claim to be a boffin on all things political and economical to do with this country yet you haven't seemed to notice the blatantly obvious. We do not have the money nor the resources, nor the space to go building prisons willy nilly. These things take years to consult about nevermind build.

Oh you'd think that wouldn't you because the job of a government is to build and manage resources properly as its number one job is to protect its people. However Labour have now been in office since 1997 Tash and the excuses for lack of time therefore do not stand.

Meanwhile you say the budget, if we do not have the money is that why Labour paid for a prison to be built in Nigeria? - is that why Labour have ballooned public sector spending? - is that why Labour signed away our rebate to the European Union? - is that why Labour continue to give millions to Zimbabwe, India, China and others?. Do not tell the British taxpayer that you cannot build prisons because 'we dont have the money' because quite honestly you are treating us like fools if you do so.

To anyone reading this, Tash says we cannot afford to build prisons here;- i'd suggest anyone to just take a look here before they believe a single word of it (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nces-here.html).

[Metric1]

No, curfews are DUMB.

[ifuseekamy]

Just turn young offender prisons into real prisons. If kids wanna be treated like adults then they can be punished like adults. Give people the right to protect themselves too.

[AgnesIO]

A place near me has a curfew on people going out after 10pm (teenagers). I can honestly say it has NOT worked. More people go out after 10 just to be even 'cooler'.

They have also banned groups of teens with more than 3 people. That has helped.

[Niall!]

Yeah, only those who own a burberry cap and wear tracksuits all the time.

[AgnesIO]

Yeah, only those who own a burberry cap and wear tracksuits all the time.

Which for the place I am talking about it pretty much it haha

[Tash.]

Yes i know the prisons are overcrowded HOWEVER everyone gets out sometime? (well most people with this **** "life" policy we have) So when we implement this we will have a stage where the prison will be massively over crowded BUT when people realize that they will go to prison for doing that petit crime then they won't so less people will be going in so it will end up being more going out then coming in instead of the other way around hence solving the overcrowding problem.

On the point you made about the "one bad child" well if you have one bad child who you need help with or have fears about then send them to a hospital for help? Or something like that it's the responsibility of that parent to deal with it and not just say OH MY CHILD IS BAD, DAM! You know common sense?

And the point you made about which parent and who do you put in well i believe that no one will commit crime so there will be no need to use it. I know what i just said was idealistic and there is a flaw there but if you want to implement a parent punishment system ranging from a fine, their benefits cut, or prison then it would stop.

they may be highly educated but the government leading the UK at the moment are in no way what so ever highly intelligent. Otherwise we wouldn't be in this mess.

What you could always do is what we used to do and send everyone to one country like Australia..

Sorry but your logic is flawed. We've got to the stage in society where people have no fear of the consequences, no matter what they are.. prison or no prison. So no, the prisons will continue to be overcrowded and then people will begin moaning because they are either a) not sticking to it/being consistent or b) letting people off for other crimes to fill prisons with people who graffiti and are generally anti-social. Prison is not the answer for everything and to be frank, some people really could not care less if they go to prison or not. It just makes them cooler in their eyes.

You propose sending the bad child "to hospital"? For what purpose.. these people are not ill, they've just had something either go wrong in their lives which has led them down the wrong path or they are trouble makers in general. Even then, you can't just "send people to hospital" the world does not work like that :S I know of law abiding, respectable people who have 2 or 3 children. 2 of the children are well behaved and get good grades, the other doesn't attend school and is generally unruly. This might lead on to that kid comitting illegal offences such as being anti-social as it often leads on to this. These parents have done everything they can think of, contacted the relevant people and yet still the child is no better. So, if one day that child did commit an offence which you say should be punished by the parents going to prison, why is that fair? They've done everything within their power, and yet still they are punished? No. Talk about unjust.

As for what you wrote about you not believing that anyone will commit the crime because they don't want their parents going to prison or the parents will do more, i'm sorry but that is very very naive. As with my story above, you could fine them, take away any benefits they happen to be on and it would not help one jot. That kid does not have any care in the world as to what happens, and there are more than just him. Idealism sounds very good in principle, does not work in the real world i'm afraid because you are assuming these people who commit these offences actually have a conscience. A great number of them don't and they don't care what happens to them or anyone they might happen to be associated with.

Oh you'd think that wouldn't you because the job of a government is to build and manage resources properly as its number one job is to protect its people. However Labour have now been in office since 1997 Tash and the excuses for lack of time therefore do not stand.

Meanwhile you say the budget, if we do not have the money is that why Labour paid for a prison to be built in Nigeria? - is that why Labour have ballooned public sector spending? - is that why Labour signed away our rebate to the European Union? - is that why Labour continue to give millions to Zimbabwe, India, China and others?. Do not tell the British taxpayer that you cannot build prisons because 'we dont have the money' because quite honestly you are treating us like fools if you do so.

To anyone reading this, Tash says we cannot afford to build prisons here;- i'd suggest anyone to just take a look here before they believe a single word of it (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nces-here.html).

I see we're back to ignoring the key part of my post. There is no space. I even heard of plans for prison ships, thats how much of a problem with space there is. I aren't getting into any arguments about government spending in this thread as it's just not relevant and you don't want to hear what I have to say anyway, your mind is set on this government being near criminals.

At the link you provided, that is £1 million, you know and I know that building any type of prison here would cost a whole lot more than that and it's also been done to rid our prisons of criminals from abroad. Unforunately, the Daily Mail has twisted this into being something bad, I aren't shocked by this in the slightest.

[Smits]

Well, i look around and see plenty of derelict buildings and old factories which have been no use to anyone for some time. Not only that, but i see acres of free land everytime i go outside. So i think there deffinately IS space for more prisons.

Of course, you can't just build one anywhere and theres always going to be people who object. But there is deffinately room. If there isn't, there would be the option of building upwards instead, building outside of the UK, and of course, building ships (which i've heard is being done).

I'm not saying prison is the solution, as i believe reforming people is the way forward and petty criminals should be kept out of jail. Criminals such as vandals, graffiti artists, litter bugs and so on.

ultimately though, a curfew on under 18s wold not work.