It seemed as though we lived in a stable, civilised society only a few short days ago. Of course, there have been ups and downs recently, but overall, it seemed safe to stroll about the streets. Who am I kidding? Our streets are full of crime. Things are not stable and we do not live in a civilised society, and our streets are not safe.
And now little did we know we are on the edge of a crime apocalypse, or so new Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood tells us.
She says we are facing a complete breakdown of law and order due to a severe scarcity of prison space.
She said that with barely any cells available to detain criminals they would have a complete licence to roam free and that we could see looters running amok, smashing windows, robbing shops and setting neighbours alight.
And who’s to blame for leading us towards this Mad Max-style dystopia? You guessed it – it’s the Tories, for locking up too many crooks and not building enough prisons.
How does Ms Mahmood propose to avert this orgy of crime? Especially if they give early release to thousands of criminals.
Is this truly the kind of fear-mongering rhetoric that the next five years will bring?
In its manifesto, Labour criticised the Tories for releasing some prisoners up to 70 days early to ease overcrowding, saying it was ‘a potential risk to the public’.
Although Ms Mahmood’s plans to release thousands of people when they have only completed 40% of their sentences are absurd, there aren’t enough prison spaces to house all of these criminals.
Past amnesties have significantly increased crime, in part because they gave offenders the impression that they could act without consequence. Up to 50% of those released under the Tory plan reoffended.
The Starmer manifesto also said that victims should have faith that justice would be delivered and that criminals would be punished, but it seems not, but then again where are we supposed to put these criminals? Perhaps our government should find a remote island and just drop them off there. Well, that wouldn’t surprise me either!
Out of the overall number of inmates, 85,851, at least 10,321 foreign nationals were incarcerated in England and Wales as of the end of June 2023. Generally, the most prevalent nationalities were Albanian, Polish, Romanian, Irish, and Jamaican, with over half of the foreign inmates being of European descent.
Deportation should happen right away to any foreign national, regardless of status, who commits an offence that carries a jail sentence.
Every day of the week, foreign nationals on boats carrying who knows what arrives at our shores, and with almost little screening, these individuals are permitted to live among us. Our government doesn’t seem to care about the safety of our folks, but it needs to stop!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 