truck
Well-known member
JM, I have just finished a book " I am not a gangster" by Bobby Cummins, convicted criminal who turned his life around and subsequently lots of others, your right, his view is basically DO NOT send young offenders into prison where they will just become schooled by experienced villains, keep them away from them in their own institutions, but more importantly educate them not to sucked into that sort of life in the first place.Worrying that anyone in a position of power thinks throwing young people in jail for relatively low level crime, surrounding them with violent criminals for months/years, destroying any chance of education or a decent job in their lives will somehow actually make things better
Sure the already significantly stretched prison system will be thankful too
Having read some of the comments about police, schools, community workers etc, it starts at the homes, Parents have a responsibility to bring their kids up with respect for others, where they live, authority, It is not the job of the police, school, work, community workers, the council, Government.
We all know that there are kids who despite their parents go the other way and are utter villains, but there would be a lot less if parents accepted it is their responsibility initially and not someone else's. Sadly there are areas all over the country that have these sort of problems, parents who don't care, have no ambition for themselves or their kids, and accept little responsibility for their own situation, it's always someone else's fault.
We need to address the cause so we can prevent it happening.