I'm with you Kaz. The majority of people in prison are there because of mental health issues, drug use as a result of mental health issues and property crime to support a drug habit as a result of mental health issues. The root cause is therefore a health system one.
Locking people up or transporting them was fashionable in 1788, pity we haven't moved on and become more sophisticated over two and a quarter centuries.
Whether it's cost or humanity the current system doesn't work, is unaffordable and relies on ever more prison capacity. The definition of stupidity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different outcome.
How did we get here in this thread?
Originally Posted by
kaz3g
Yeh...but we are all paying for that train even though we aren't using it.
Is it appropriate to mention here the appalling lack of public transport services for most of us who reside in rural Victoria outside of the marginal seats?
I doubt the "tough on crime" brigade will ever be convinced of the futility of imprisoning the majority of offenders by arguments around better outcomes, but some of them might just understand a cost-efficiency one. The citizens of California finally came to that conclusion after their prisons nearly bankrupted them.
Kaz