@AA
But what do you mean by "serving their time"? The sentence was handed down by the courts, modified by the courts, and is regulated by the courts through agencies that act as their proxies.

Public fury about anything is not a consideration, as far as I'm concerned. I simply couldn't care less what the general public thinks - if, indeed, the general public ever thinks at all.

EDIT: Also, to say that prisoners ought to try to get an education or qualifications while inside is all very well - but it's often not possible, especially for those on short sentences. Ease conditions to make it possible, and, once again, we're in electoral suicide mode.

EDIT (2): And I don't think we agree that they deserve to be there. I think that desert is a tricky concept, and I'm not sure it's applicable. (For example, one might say that a violent teenager would not have been violent but for the bad luck of his social circumstances. But if those circumstances, about which he can do nothing, are so important, it means you have to reassess what "desert" means - it looks like he could not reasonably be expected to do otherwise.) Either way, it's not something that concerns me a great deal.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 29 Oct 2008, 11:28, Reply)