Cut prison numbers, say contenders at Tribune hustings

Ed Miliband and Diane Abbott both called for fewer people to be put behind bars at a Tribune Labour leadership hustings

by Keith Richmond
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Ed Miliband and Diane Abbott have both called for fewer people to be put behind bars. Speaking at the Labour leadership hustings organised by Tribune, the Howard League for Penal Reform and NAPO at Islington Town Hall, Mr Miliband said: “Ken Clarke opened this debate on prisons and sentencing policy not because the Tories have had a change of heart but because of budget cuts. Labour did lots of things right in 13 years but I believe it is time to re-think whether sentencing works. It’s time to be more original and more imaginative in our approach.”

And Ms Abbott said: “Putting more people in prison hasn’t worked. We have a criminal justice policy geared to the tabloid press rather than the long term. If I was Labour leader, we would put fewer people in prison – and intervene much earlier.”

As David Cameron starts to slash public spending, Ed Balls said we must not repeat the mistakes of the 1930s. “There is an alternative and it is Labour’s responsibility to set it out. These cuts are too deep, too fast and a political choice, not an economic necessity. For the sake of our jobs, our economy and our future, we need a clear plan for growth.”

Andy Burnham, unable to be present for family reasons, called through his proxy for the BBC to end unpaid internships which exploit young people desperate for work experience. They should, he said, be paid at least the minimum wage.

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About The Author

Keith Richmond is deputy editor of Tribune
  • terence patrick hewett

    The prisons are housing for the most part: unmarried mothers, locked up for not paying their TV licence: the insane, on the streets because the government closed down the lunatic asylums: and those locked up for drugs. The answer:

    Firstly: the state to sell drugs at cost or free, since these people are in it for profit: take that away by knocking the bottom out of the market and they won’t be in business.

    Secondly: send the BBC out to earn their living like the rest of us.

    Thirdly: for charity’s sake, one of the few things that the state should be engaged in is asylum for the insane.

    None of these suggestions will ever be enacted because politicians are not serous people: as they are presently constituted they are not problem solvers, they are problem creators.

  • terence patrick hewett

    The prisons are housing for the most part: unmarried mothers, locked up for not paying their TV licence: the insane, on the streets because the government closed down the lunatic asylums: and those locked up for drugs. The answer:

    Firstly: the state to sell drugs at cost or free, since these people are in it for profit: take that away by knocking the bottom out of the market and they won’t be in business.

    Secondly: send the BBC out to earn their living like the rest of us.

    Thirdly: for charity’s sake, one of the few things that the state should be engaged in is asylum for the insane.

    None of these suggestions will ever be enacted because politicians are not serous people: as they are presently constituted they are not problem solvers, they are problem creators.

  • Robert

    If you live in the real world like mine, we have a lad well a man really a bully, he will argue with you and then go home come back at night and slash your tyres, or go down the side of your can with a knife. His son is going the same way, Police come up you show them the damage they are use to it now and know it’s him.

    They warn him about the knife and they say thats it’s all they can do, then on day he picks on somebody and argument arises he pulls a knife and kills the other person, we find out this chap with the knife has had twenty five warnings he has done community work, the fact is the law does it’s best to keep this bloke out it takes a death to Finlay put him away but somebody has died.

    Another well known lad steals cars crashes them, he is an idiot has been to court 90 times, he then knocks down a women breaks her leg, and we say this time, he gets a warning, six months later he knocks down a lady while stealing a car and kills her, the court says that it your going down three years, if he had been put in jail that lady might still be alive.

    What are jails for not for punishment it’s a life of luxury in the UK, it’s to stop them from hurting us the public, so dam the human rights if somebody steals cars twice lock them up for life on the third time.

    I’ve had enough of little Pratt’s and do gooders.

  • Robert

    If you live in the real world like mine, we have a lad well a man really a bully, he will argue with you and then go home come back at night and slash your tyres, or go down the side of your can with a knife. His son is going the same way, Police come up you show them the damage they are use to it now and know it’s him.

    They warn him about the knife and they say thats it’s all they can do, then on day he picks on somebody and argument arises he pulls a knife and kills the other person, we find out this chap with the knife has had twenty five warnings he has done community work, the fact is the law does it’s best to keep this bloke out it takes a death to Finlay put him away but somebody has died.

    Another well known lad steals cars crashes them, he is an idiot has been to court 90 times, he then knocks down a women breaks her leg, and we say this time, he gets a warning, six months later he knocks down a lady while stealing a car and kills her, the court says that it your going down three years, if he had been put in jail that lady might still be alive.

    What are jails for not for punishment it’s a life of luxury in the UK, it’s to stop them from hurting us the public, so dam the human rights if somebody steals cars twice lock them up for life on the third time.

    I’ve had enough of little Pratt’s and do gooders.

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