PRISON SENTENCES ARE TOO LENIENT

Prison Sentences Are Too Lenient

Prison Sentences Are Too Lenient

The police was the most popular thread commented on by users - perhaps because many of them had some contact with the police. A lot of the users on the forum felt that they were negatively stereotyped in general for being young, but particularly by the police. Some also did suggest that the police dealt with black and white teenagers differently in their experience.

They [the police] can also make things alot worse especially when they tell kids that are not getting into trouble to go home or something like that as that make the children think "whats the point of being good when the police still have a go at us and accuse us of doing bad things" i personally think that police are a tad bit too judgemental. i know they are doing there job but; sometimes they are deciding whether we are up too something just by what we wear, or the colour of our skin.

Some of the young people on the forum had experience of stop and search, either personally or through friends. Although most users felt stop and search helped fight crime, particularly those who had been stopped, many felt it was being used indiscriminately and that young people were being asked to justify their actions when they'd done nothing wrong. Those that complained of mistreatment by police officers felt that the officer that had stopped them did not treat them with respect, unfairly targeted them and did not explain the process to them or the reason they were being stopped. (Sprack, 2006, 2-99)

There were 4 black people and 1 white person and 1 ginger person. the police came over to us and told us to go home. we told them that we cant. they kept on asking and eventually we ignored them. they got angry and started pushing all the black people but left the white person and the ginger person ran away. i do not think this is fair because this shows racism and unfair behaviour towards the public(Sprack, 2006, 2-99)

Prison and community sentences

Almost all users that commented on this subject in the forum felt that prison sentences were too lenient and that prison was too comfortable to be a deterrent from committing crime. Re-offending rates were highlighted as an example of how prison wasn't working well enough. Community sentencing was quite a popular alternative to prison, with forum users suggesting it as a way of punishing less serious crimes, as well as making convicted criminals meet their victims and facing the consequences of their actions.

It is said that 80% of the criminals sent to prison come back out and commit a criminal offence again! What does this tell us? It tells us that prisonment is not a right punishment. Look at the prisons now... there comfy, they've got tv's and luxury...is this real punishment? nope.

Most of the forum users suggested that sentences for serious crimes should be longer, with life ...