Howards Way?

3.53.46pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 11th Aug 2004

Something about the night?

Michael Howard, Leader of the Conservative Party, yesterday launched his vision on law and order. I am truly amazed that Howard and the Conservative Party have learnt nothing and their main policy seems to be to lock more people up. In my opinion what society should be doing what Tony Blair promised, but has not delivered and that is to tackle to causes of crime. Society should also be looking at alternatives to imprisoning those that have broken the law, as it is we imprison more percentage of the population than any other European country.

One of the major causes of crime in the UK is poverty and that should be a number one priority to tackle. Labour promised so much but the gap between the rich and the poor has actually grown since Labour came to power in 1997. A second reason for an increase in youth crime, or a perception of youth crime, is boredom amongst young people. The youth of so many towns and cities have been let down, there are so few facilities for young people to use, and is it any wonder that young people gather in public areas - there is little else to do. When I worked for the British Youth Council the boredom or lack of anything else to do was the biggest factor we found that resulted in young people gathering in public. Obviously this does not excuse anti-social behaviour but most young people are not behaving anti-socially but are perceived as doing so, those that do act in an anti-social way should obviously be dealt with.

As for punishment I have always believed that prison should be the last choice, not the first choice as Michael Howard seems to think. There are other ways that can actually benefit society such as Community Service, or in some case for those that may have committed drug related crimes rehab could be better.