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| British prison (Image: BBC) |
When I was a child in the 90s, a prison sentence was the ultimate punishment if you committed notoriously bad crimes. Now it seems that if you're about to commit something awful, or the wrongdoing you did was petty, the court cannot wait to put you behind bars. According to The Howard League of Penal Reform, 85,567 are in a jail in England and Wales. More people are in prison than those who live in places like Cotswold, Durham and Lincoln.
There were two news stories this past week that caught my eye which suggest to me that surely, there should be alternative punishments. The first story is the shocking racism that rocked world football. My beloved Chelsea Football Club played out a hard fought 1-1 Champions League draw with Paris St. Germain, but the game was marred by a very small minority of people who, in a busy held-up Metro prior to kick off, picked on an individual for the colour of his skin. Then having identified that they singled out a black man to bully, they chanted about their behaviour, proud that they were racist.
The action was there for the world to see. An Englishman living in the French capital was at that Metro station, saw everything and filmed the entire thing. As a supporter of Chelsea for 16 years, I've never felt more embarrassed. And the Chelsea press office felt the same as well. They had to react pretty quickly as the press hounded them provoking a strong response from the London-based side. They urged people to identify the culprits and these would be punished accordingly. If they were season ticket holders or if they ever wanted to watch a Chelsea match, they'd be banned for many years to come. For me, that's a fair punishment. You're representing your football club and if you can't be civil, don't bother ruining it for the rest.
But to escalate things further, the police have to get involved and there have been reports that those involved could be locked up for three years. For me, despite the fact that those who racially abuse should be condemned, I feel that prison isn't fitted to the crime. What will they learn by staying in prison? Wouldn't being locked up fuel their racist instinct? They need to realise that what they did is not only demeaning to the person they targeted, but an entire community. You may not be able to get rid of their racial thoughts but education is key. Ban them from football games and label them racists. That's punishing enough.
From one form of hatred to another - next month could see a wannabe extremist locked up behind bars for at least twelve years. On Thursday, 19 year old Brusthom Ziamani was found guilty of plotting to kill a soldier, an event which could have taken place when he was arrested in August 2014. The teenager was under surveillance by MI5 and the Metropolitan Police and when they caught him, he possessed a hammer, a 12 inch knife and an "Islamic flag". Ziamani was inspired by the two killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby the year previous.
Should Ziamani have actually committed act of pure evil, then the case would have been closed and he'd be behind bars by now. However, since the youngster has no previous convictions (he's only 19), the judge at the Old Bailey has until the 20th March to consider his fate. Remember, despite us sensing that he would have murdered a soldier on the day he was arrested, he still hasn't committed the crime. Neither technically did he attempt to murder anyone either which makes you wonder why is he going to prison in the first place?
I have no doubt that he'd be in jail for at least a decade or two but if he's out of prison by 40, what would happen then? He is clearly an angry boy and is naive enough to listen to horrendous influences. By sharing his angry and violent fantasies online, he is considered a dangerous man. He should have been caught before but the police arrested him at the opportune moment. Because of his thoughts, his life is wasted. He'll be in prison due to immaturity and listening to people who impose hatred on others.
A prison sentence for Ziamani is justified. Some say it's best to be safe than sorry but for me, the justice system has to alter. In my view, you have to do something horrendous to keep you away from society. If you dodged tax, the punishment should be paying it back in full, within a small space of time. If you traffic drugs, do some heavy amount of community service, close the business they work for and halt any further action of the kind in the process. If you burgled, replace or return absolutely everything at all cost within the weeks after court ruling.
Things that come out of people's mouth doesn't constitute a prison sentence in my eyes. We hear Twitter users who type abuse to an individual or group and they are behind bars for a number of weeks. Isn't just deactivating their social media accounts justified? With the rising number of registered users on social media, if the police need to patrol everything, it may be worth running confidential CRB checks for each future Facebook, Twitter registration. There can be cyber laws separate to the one that effects High or County Courts. What the justice system needs is to be a little simpler in their approach. Each individual case is different and so too is the way each crime is committed, but each individual crime should have the same punishment.
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