A piece from the BBC. 80,000 of the 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales are men, and we know from an article by William Collins that if male criminals were sentenced as leniently as female criminals, five out of six men currently in prison in England and Wales wouldn’t be there. Simon Hughes’s incredible suggestion is to halve the number of female prisoners. There’s no end to the gynocentrism displayed by politicians and others working in public bodies.
Hughes makes excuses for female criminality, all of which apply equally well to male criminals, such as mental health issues and abusive backgrounds. And finally this:
Many more women have caring responsibilities than men do.
Two points:
1. Why should having caring responsibilities be a ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card, other than to avoid the state incurring expenditure in imprisoning the women, and also for providing substitute care while the women are in prison? Does Hughes not realise he’s giving a green light to women with caring responsibilities to commit crimes?
2. Surely sentencing should be set at an individual level, not a group level? Why should it matter that many more women than men have caring responsibilities?
What a world we live in, when your likelihood of going to prison is considerably increased if you have the ‘wrong’ genitals. If this is justice, I’m a Waldorf salad.
