The birch



dom said:
20 years on the rock pile.
Click to expand...

If convicted of a crime then the offender should have two options. The above and the other to voluntarily sign up for the military. The latter being without pay (food and lodgings provided) and they are able to make the leap into the regular army (with pay and leave) when they have proven they have reformed and are disciplined.
 
CatRyan said:
When a 13 year old is caught up in a murder you need to be birching the parents more than the child.
They should be up on neglect, abuse and child endangerment charges as it is.
Click to expand...
I agree and take your point about how badly kids are let down by poor nurture but there does come a point where whatever the archeology of the problem, the problem becomes the problem. Birching these kids parents wouldn't change the kids now.
Maybe we are letting them down too by letting them believe society will tolerate what they are becoming with too soft a message.
 
Tricky one this. Prison isn't really anything of a deterrent from what I can determine due to many factors. Bottom line for me is properly, and I mean properly fund the Prison Service, eg a five-fold increase in staff at least. Pay them what they are worth, although admittedly costly, and make the officers feel valued and supported, not working in fear of devious allegations or soft-touch punishments for violence / drugs etc. Further reduce privileges for the least bit of in-discipline, and make them feel hard done to - that's what a punishment should be about. Remind them that their 'rights' are inextricably linked to their 'responsibilities'.
Maybe a tiered structure of what the sentences are like in reality - start with the most stringent regime for everyone and then, should the prisoner demonstrate that they are perhaps capable of being rehabilitated and responsive to the challenge of behaving in a socially acceptable manner, then start to drip feed it in over time.
Just thinking out loud really - don't know what the answer is.
 
Last edited:
Three of my old mates went to borstal, none of them reoffended.
That tells a story in its self.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Seem to be in keeping with Christian Doctrines :

Proverbs 13:24: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”
Proverbs 23:13-14 says: “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. / Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.”
 
The King of Um said:
When you're thinking about something like this, I think it's important not just to think about what it does or doesn't do to the people receiving it, but also what it does to the people administering it, or who might be keen to use it, given that the birch was mainly a school thing.

The biggest enthusiasts for administering corporal punishment at my school seemed to take an unholy pleasure in doing it, and there are at least a couple who I'd say in retrospect were getting their rocks off on it.

The hard labour thing, I have no problem with, especially if it's coupled with a rule that every day where you piss about or don't pull your weight or infringe, you get another two days added on to the time you have to serve.
Click to expand...
Program industrial robots to do it the knars
 
dred said:
Three of my old mates went to borstal, none of them reoffended.
That tells a story in its self.
Click to expand...
My brother went to borstal.
He said the shock at first made you want to beg to get out but then you got used to it.
He then said he came out 10 times fitter than when he went in and it helped him evade the police as well as learning plenty from some of the more sophisticated criminal youngsters in borstal.

That was then and it likely half worked.
Today the same regime would not work at all under the constraints placed on how punishment is administered.
Too much red tape behind everything, not to mention the do good brigade who've likely not been on the end of the bad side of life.
 

Back
Top