Finding A Suitable Deterrant: Bring Back The Stocks

I think instead of sending people to prison, they should do what our council can seem to keep up with, Like the chain gang, have them in ankle chains fixing the roads, building the new lane on the M50, save wasting the tax payers money by employing someone else who is going to rip us off. Also they shouldn't be living in these perfectly built prisons when are hospitals are in bits. If your in hospital you share a room with about 5/7 others share the loo, can't watch what you like, but go to prison, you get your own room (in most cases) with en-suite, TV and your in charge of the remote. And you get better medical care in prisions as you wouldn't want to sue the state for bad medical care, causing you great pain bla bla bla. And prisioners think they get a bad deal. Rant over...

Well in some countries in the world, thieves still have their hands cut off today! Seems a bit extreme to my way of thinking, but I hear there is very little street crime in these places! I quite like thestocks myself, for lesser crimes. There is no lastng damage (maybe just a few pulled muscles from the position you are placed in) , but an awful lot of shame, and public humiliation. Mind you, in a coutry where young lads are meant to be proud of getting ASBOs because it adds to their "street cred", I'm not sure they would work here. Honestly, I don't know the answer.

Bring Back The Stocks as A Suitable Deterrent? I really don't think they would do very much good. I must admit that I'm all for public humiliation of convicted criminals but not sure how i would go about doing this. Unfortunately, while the times have changed, the way we handle people involved in crimes has not changed much. it's got worse. Our society doesn't focus enough on rehabilitation. Given the proper resources (money, people, and time), I do believe that the majority of minor petty criminals could be rehabilitated. (Not all though...some are simply bad seeds from day one.) Any punishment given out MUST, MUST, MUST fit the crime. So then the criminals will know fully well that whatever offence they carry out will be worth the risk they are taking in performing it. There has to be zero tolerance applied to all acts of crime — particularly those undertaken by young people. The earlier they learn that punishment will be HARSH (rather than simply a 'slap on the wrist') the less chance they will re-offend. Criminals of all ages must not be given chance after chance before being locked up — at present they know the system is laughable and that they can get away with many offences before any meaningful action is taken against them. We must listen less to the 'bleeding heart liberals' in our society and more to the common sense views that the vast majority of law abiding people in this country hold. For goodness sake let us make criminals pay for their actions and get them off our streets. Don't be afraid to build hundreds (YES hundreds) of more prisons if necessary to deal with these people and hand out longer custodial sentences. Would the British public be prepared to pay in some way towards the initial cost of this in order to make it happen? You bet your life they would. Has this Government got the guts to ask them I wonder? 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime"? A miserable failure to date I'm afraid-no matter how statistics are manipulated to show otherwise. If someone killed my brother or my friend, I'd want justice. The way the system works is laughable and in such a case, only immediate justice would suffice. All victims' families deserve 'closure." I would bring back public executions. In old times, publicly executing someone had a twofold purpose: Bring closure to relatives of the condemned victim(s) Demonstrate to the general populace that the justice system does work, and that there will be serious punishment for the violation of a serious law. I don't expect this to happen. The justice system is sometimes based purely on opinion and instinct, not on the facts. If the prosecution paints a better picture than the defence, the accused is convicted. Vice versa, the accused goes free.

Definitely have to find a happy medium! Especially since back in those days it was the poor who were getting thier hands chopped off for stealing bread. God only knows what happened to our justice system!. It is a comedy of errors.

Ooh, where do I start on this one, am sure I won't mention everything I have to say on this as I'd be here all week! I do think that a lot of the sentences issued are laughable and in the vast majority of cases are never going to have the desired effect of reducing crime. At the same time though I don't think that public humiliation is the way to go either, mainly because most offenders will have big emotional issues, ok so not everyone who does commit crimes admittedly, but making the psychologial issues worse really isn't going to help much. In fact I don't think that the punishment itself is the place to be focusing at all and I don't think we'll ever get it 'right'. Don't get me wrong there, I do think that there needs to be some form of punishment for offending, and it needs to be fitting to the crime, unlike most of the alternatives that are currently available. The vast majority of offenders are young males are aged 18-24, so why isn't there more focus on them and what they are doing, they need to be targeted before they reach the age that they're most likely to be actually going out and offending. Ok, so great in theory, have a great education plan through schools that educates kids to suffering victims of crime, etc, blah blah blah... but then there's the problem that half the kids who you want to be targeting will be bunking off school anyway so not be there to hear it, the rest who did actually turn up are likely to have been brought up with very little respect for authority and so pay no real attention whatsoever, or purposely go out and do the opposite of what they've just been told anyway... hmm, perhaps not such a great plan after all then...any better suggestions? But I do think that sorting out the underlying social problems is the key issue rather than individual justice that needs to be sorted before we have any real chance of seeing any substantial change.

We are to soft nowadays it appears criminals get treated better than victims! I believe if you go to prison you should be working and not sitting watching TV ! I don't want the horrific punishments but i believe you have to atone for what you have done don't make prison and easy option.

There's so much to say here that I don't even know where to start. First, i guess, public humiliation, like the stocks you mentioned, should only be used when there is no shadow of a doubt that the person is guilty. Second, when ya get into stealing & raping, those are not even close to the same type of crime. I've been stolen from & I've been raped, trust me, there is NO comparison. I'd rather be stolen from every day of my life than ever go through another rape. My point? I can see a harsh punishment like chopping off a rapist's "member" IF and only if the person is guilty without a doubt. With all the DNA evidence setting convicted rapists and murderers free because they did not actually do the crime (wrongful conviction happens a whole lot more than we hear about), but chopping off hands and feet is a bit much. What are they supposed to do to earn their keep without hands and feet? Even prisoners work. I also think that inmates are given such things for distraction from the fact that many of them get raped/gang raped on a daily basis in there. Besides, I've heard of them having a TV for a whole cell block of inmates, but I have yet to hear of inmates owning their own video games. Tho, just because I haven't heard of it, doesn't mean it isn't happening somewhere, ya know. About hot meals...if you're not going to set an animal free to hunt it's own food, you must feed it...even if that animal is a barbaric human being. Dunno about the happy medium. Personally, I have always thought of the firing squad as more human than the electric chair or the gas chamber, but what do I know?

i have to say that i think bring back The Stock or any old way of punishing criminal is a very good idea, though it sounds a little barbaric. but i believe it would be extremely effective to reduce crime. it make people think twice before they committed any form of crime

I agree to public humiliation if they are really proven guilty. Barbaric people needed to be treated in a barbaric way. Prison is different in many countries, it may equipped with all the amenities typical of rich nations, or it could really be filthy & hellish like in many poor southeast asean countries like ours. Here, prisoners really wished they were never sent to prison.

Im all in favour of the stocks.. People would get to see who the villans where. It might be a good deterant to make people think twice about committing the offences in the first place! Do something wrong they dont deserve to be where they can watch TV and use playstations ect Now-a-days our justice system here is sending out the wrong messege to people! Do Crime and you will get treat well! Thats how some see it! When they should see going down as a deterant and the likes! Lynn-Marie