The guys making $2000 a day are working one or two days out of the month. They don’t go to the doctor unless they’ve been shot. They don’t go to school. They don’t register their cars if they don’t get caught, they don’t buy insurance for them. They steal when something catches their attention and are surprised when someone rats them out. They sleep until noon and go to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning, after playing a lot of PS3 and watching a lot of TV.

In short, they live the ultimate life of a teenager, until they either get sent to prison for a long time, they get shot, or they die of old age. They do not change because there is no need to change and no desire to change.

There is a Sudanese officer where I work. He thinks these guys have it way too easy in our jails. He said something really quotable, which I will never forget because it makes me laugh. “In Sudan you go to jail, they beat you with stick, you cry, nobody care”

Now I know that is an iffy one, particularly when faced with the realities in terms lack of space etc, but in my opinion societies need to be more clear about what they try to do with their convicts. In other words we have to choose whether rehabilitation is really part of our criminal justice philosophy. If so, and this is generally the case in most industrialised countries, then we need the means of making that a reality. It seems we are stuck in a position where lip service is paid to rehabilitation and reintegration, yet we by no means have the resources in place to achieve this. If it is not to be part of our philosophy, then perhaps it is time to send people to isolated islands again… :)?

btw: Had a look at your AV site, which is nice…I use Joomla as well, and am always curious to see what others are doing. One thing I noticed is that you are not using the sef patch, which lets you handle the meta for each page. Have used it on other sites and can only recommend it – I would just buy the component as it has some useful extras and installs well…it’s only a few squid.

It’s Joomla!

Also, people make mistakes. Society recognizes this. That’s why we have probation and lenient sentencing for those who don’t have criminal records. By and large the people in jail have criminal records that are pages long. If I have a jaded or anti-thug attitude, it’s because I see over and over that left to their own devices these individuals harm people in the community with the choices they make when they aren’t incarcerated. If anything we need more jails and stiffer sentencing.