One Idea For Dealing With Overcrowding In Our Prisons

Okay. Here is an "out-of-the-box" proposal. Before I start, let me say that I do not have the relevant statistics and that I have no idea how many individuals would be affected by it. But I do believe that our jails are overcrowded and that there are many, many persons in jail who cannot afford bail but have been held on remand for longer than the penalty for which they would have to serve  if they were found to be guilty. This is clearly most unfair.


On the other side, our magistrates courts simply can't cope with the sheer volume of cases that they have to deal with on a daily basis. The result is that a case is called today and for one reason or another it can't be heard so it is put off to another date ... usually more than a month later ... and the poor wretch is sent back to jail. And it continues ...!!


Now, I do believe that a lot of those in Remand are probably as guilty as hell of whatever crime(s) they have been accused of. But that is not how our system of justice is supposed to work. A citizen is entitled as of right to be presumed innocent unless and until he is found guilty. But the problem occurs when he can't get bail and is effectively imprisoned indefinitely. Justice should not only be swift, but be fair.


So? How can we fix this? Frankly, no solution is perfect, but fixing this problem ought to be in the forefront of our collective minds. With this in mind, tell me what you think of this:


We give a conditional pardon to all persons who are accused of offences the penalty for which is, say, imprisonment for ten years or less. The condition would be that if they get charged with any crime (even a traffic offence) within, say, the next ten years then they will be charged not only with that new offence but also with this old one for which they were locked up for in the first place.


The intention here is to try and eliminate at the very least some of the back log in the courts and to ease overcrowding in the jails.


I don't have a problem if you disagree with this idea , but I would ask that in any discussion which this idea might generate that we deal with the idea and try to keep politics and race out of it. That there is a problem is widely acknowledged. The question is how should we deal with it? What are your thoughts?