Wednesday 6 December 2006

Licence to kill?


In the past two years the following crimes were committed by former prisoners who were supposed to be under supervision after being released early on licence:

98 murders.
32 attempted murders.
106 rapes.
378 other serious crimes, including manslaughter, kidnapping, arson and armed robbery.

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "This is a shocking indictment of Government failure across the board to protect the public. How much longer must the public pay the often lethal price of this failure?"
The Home Office argued that only 0.2 per cent (448) of offenders being supervised were convicted of a serious violent or sexual offence in any one year.
The 2005 Offender Management Statistics disclosed that the period of imprisonment served by criminals handed a discretionary life term fell from nine years in 2004 to six years last year.
The statistics discovered that, in England and Wales, 144 of every 100,000 of the population were in custody,
The figures for 2005 show that 224,090 offenders were being supervised by the probation service, a rise of seven per cent over the previous year.
Assistant general secretary of the probation union Napo, Harry Fletcher, said the rise in offences committed by people on parole could be due to an increase in the number of people released early from prison. "The government must ensure that the Probation Service is fully resourced in order to minimise the chances of serious re-offending in the future."

Q. Should those convicted of a serious violent or sexual offence be considered for early release on licence?

To view the results go to:

http://dailyreferendum.co.uk/

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