Re: Incarcerated criminals should pay incarceration costs
Originally Posted by
The Artful Todger
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It is ludicrous that most English undergrads have to pay big bucks for what in most cases is a poor education in our universities and yet crims pay zilch for being provided with accomadation, food, and more.
IMO prisoners should be charged for at least some if not all of their incarceration costs to be repayable on release.
Perhaps by a garnishing of their wages, maybe by having a special tax code, or a surcharge on any "benefits" they get on release.
Apart from being right and proper it would be at least some reduction on the stupidly high costs that we tax payers have to fund.
Why not?
I don't know about that. It could encourage them to go on a crime spree in order to raise the money.
A far better solution, in my opinion, would be to force them to work for their food when they're in jail. Hard labour.
Oakum picking and rock breaking are probably not much required today, but clearing up litter, cleaning graffiti, digging over old people's gardens, etc. would be at least useful.
For the worst offenders, I'm sure much more tedious and demanding work could be found.
Needless to say, this must not be anything like 'community punishment', but the crims would be obliged to live in cells with little or no comforts or pleasures.
EDIT:
Reading on, I see that others have beaten me to it!