Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Britain and imprisonment: don’t believe the hype
In The Telegraph today:
The imprisonment rate in England and Wales is the highest of any major country in western Europe, according to figures published today.
It seems we jail 142 people per 100,000 of population while countries like France and Germany jail considerably fewer - 91 and 96 per 100,00 of population respectively.
On the face of it seems that the UK is pretty harsh on its population. It seems even that Mr Blair’s ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ statement has been met with positive action. Well, I find that hard to believe so let’s look a little deeper…
First, the statistic itself is not particularly revealing. To know if 142 people jailed per 100,000 of population is high or low you need to know how much crime’s being committed amongst that population. 142 people per 100, 000 of population in jail is high if there are only 142 crimes per 100, 000 people because it means everybody goes to prison. But if all 100,000 have got their fingers in the till then 142 imprisonments looks pretty paltry.
The more meaningful statistic is the rate of imprisonment per X number of crimes, not per X number of people. It seems we usually measure imprisonment against per 1,000 crimes. That gives us a measure of actual criminality in the society and a corresponding rate of imprisonment in comparison with that.
Which paints a different picture.
Using a graph found on the excellent Civitas blog (with thanks to Blimpish) we can look at some slightly older figures to illustrate the general point.
In 2000, for example, England and Wales together imprisoned 124 people per 100,00o of population. Germany imprisoned just 97 per 100,000.
But if you look at the number of prisoners per 1,000 recorded crimes then both countries imprisoned at the same rate - 12.7 people per 1,000 crimes.
In fact, the UK’s imprisonment rate is quite low compared to the EU average of 17.7 people imprisoned for every 1,000 crimes.
Some countries are prison-crazy. Greece locks ‘em up at the rate of 21.8 people per 1,000 crimes. In Italy it’s 24 people per 1,000 and in Spain - the most severe country in the EU at that time - they must be putting you away for wearing a loud shirt in a built-up area because their imprisonment rate is a whopping 49.1 people per 1,000 crimes.
You know what’s interesting in Spain’s case? A very high rate of imprisonment but a very low rate of crime. At 2,339 crimes per 100,000 people its crime rate is barely one-third of the EU average and is less than a quarter of the UK’s extremely high (50% more than the EU average) crime rate.
Want another? Ireland imprisons like it’s going out of fashion too. At 39.4 jailings per 1,000 crimes they’re the second most severe jailers in the EU (as at the year 2000). Yet at 1,933 crimes per 100,000 people they have the EU’s lowest crime figures.
And so it goes. The general consequences of low imprisonment - as per the UK - is high crime - as per the UK.
Prison isn’t perfect. We don’t do nearly enough to prevent reoffending, we seem not to pay the greatest of attention to educational needs and we possibly aren’t taking seriously enough the appalling backgrounds of some of our prisoners when formulating rehabilitation schemes. So we suffer a very high (approximately 80%) reoffending rate. But criminals in prison can’t commit crime. And those just setting out on a life of crime may well rethink their ambitions after an early and meaningful spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure. The crime and imprisonment figures of the EU seem to suggest that prison does indeed work.
…literacy test scores for 11- year-olds jumped 18 percentage points between 1996 and 2004. But when the same children came to take their GCSEs five years later, their results improved by only four points — a rise no greater than would be predicted by long-term trends.
The article goes on to quote different reasons why this might be, including poor standards of teaching in some schools and also that the tests at 11 years exaggerate the improvements.
I’d add this: in a culture where the distractions of 24 hour television, X-box and games on mobile phones it’s a rarity to see a teenager on the bus or tube reading a book. Literacy isn’t a school-only thing it’s a lifestyle activity and teachers are having to teach children - teenagers - who have never read a book in their lives. This cannot be easy.
Anyway, Redbridge - where I live - is doing extremely well in education - take a look at the tables.
Overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat, according to a study.
Now I’ve always railed against the diet industry because, from the days our ancestors left the African savannah, our bodies have been programmed to preserve body fat at the slightest hint of lack of food. It’s a survival measure to preserve our energy during what must have been frequent food shortages. This is why diets don’t work. But, it seems, diets are even worse than useless - they can be damaging. This was revealed by an 18 year study in Finland by Thorkild Sorensen of the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Copenhagen University hospital:
“It seems as if the long-term effect of the weight loss is a general weakening of the body that leads to an increased risk of dying from several different causes,” said Dr Sorensen. “The adverse effects of losing lean body mass may overrule the beneficial effects of losing fat mass when dieting,” he added.
Fat-loss from already lean organs is being suggested as one of the reasons some dieters die younger. Either way, it’s bad news if you want to slim down without exercising, great news if you crave a Mars Bar right now…
ID Cards are under attack again - quite right too. ID cards aren’t about preventing crime or terrorism - the criminals in this country will already have them and the terrorists who visit will have visitor visas. The September 11 bombers didn’t conceal their identities anyway so ID card or no ID card the Twin Towers were going to be attacked. And Spain already has ID cards - didn’t stop the Madrid train bomb there.
This is about an increasingly authoritarian government extending its reach into as many aspects of yours and my life as possible. There’s no reason for it - they just can’t help themselves.
Anyway, they’re upsetting everyone, according to The Guardian:
Senior ministers refused to compromise yesterday in the face of a ferocious onslaught from MPs, trade unions and civil liberty groups seeking to overwhelm tomorrow’s Commons second reading of the ID cards bill.
Like other New Labour policies, the ID Card victimises the law-abiding majority. If you smoke or if you drive a car they’re after you because you’re an easy target. Once the ID cards are issued, leaving home without one will be illegal. Forgetting to tell the authorities you’ve lost it or moved address will be a crime too. It’s just getting easier and easier to fall foul of New Labour.
Lord Nelson’s routing of the French and Spanish at Trafalgar gets the politically correct treatment this week. It seems we’re not to mention who the enemy was so I’ll say it again: it was the FRENCH and the SPANISH and we kicked their BOTTOMS.
According to the BBC:
Anna Tribe, 75 and the great, great, great granddaughter of the admiral, criticised a mock-up of the 1805 sea battle as “politically correct”.
Tuesday’s re-enactment in the Solent will pit reds against blues, not English against French and Spanish.
What is it with these people? Will celebrating English victories of 200 hundred years ago against the FRENCH and the SPANISH cause racial hatred today? Of course not. There’ll be some patriotism and some triumphalism - we may learn a little history even - and we’ll all have a good time and then we’ll all go home again. Simple.
Whatever next? The Battle of Britain, as fought by the yellows and the greens?
Meera Syal - comedienne, novelist, writer and all round well-known person - expounds the delights of Leytonestone in ‘The Sunday Times’.
“Welcome to Leytonstone, lovely Leytonstone,” she intones in the Indian vowels of her alter ego, Granny Kumar. “Where else could you get a six-bedroom house for only £470,000?”
She’s actually selling up and taking herself to horizons new. Well, ‘horizon’ might be over-stating it a bit: South Woodford. But she retains an affection for her old stomping ground.
“This area of London is brilliant — it has the best of both worlds. It’s easy to get into town, being closer to the centre than Ealing, but it’s incredibly green and and has a wonderful community feel. I’ve grown to love the East End, its history, its people. It’s also a really multicultural area — I have to have access to Asian culture, and I’m very near Brick Lane and Green Street with all their restaurants and fashions and where some of my writing is set.”
Her Leytonstone house was derilict when she’d bought it. One of the first renovations was to the sash windows. Good move. The first thing I did with my sash windows was replace them with PVC double glazing. Warm - but charmless.
Syal wrote many of the pieces that made her famous in this house, including the recently televised ‘Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee’ and parts of the comedy ‘Goodness Gracious Me’. All of which, I’m sure, added a few quid to its asking price when she sold…
