On first glance, the news that foreign criminals in British jails are being offered up to 3,000 pounds to leave the country is likely to spark bemusement, even outrage. Particularly if it’s described as a ‘bribe’. If someone gave me 3,000 pounds, I’d be more than happy to up sticks and go and settle in sunnier climes, and I’m not even a criminal, you may say.
But the government argues that the facilitated returns scheme — as the package of incentives introduced in 2006 is called — makes financial sense.
UK prisons are bursting at the seams and it costs taxpayers 100 pounds a night to keep a prisoner in jail, the Home Office says. So keep a criminal behind bars for 30 days, and there goes the 3,000. Might as well ask them to leave for the same cost. Enforced removals cost an estimated 11,000 pounds per prisoner.
So do you think it’s right to pay people to pack their bags quickly? If not, what’s your solution to jail overcrowding?
The scheme was introduced by then Home Secretary John Reid, the minister who famously declared the rambling Home Office as “not fit for purpose” when he took it over in May 2006.
The government deported over 4,200 foreign national prisoners in 2007, 80 percent more than the previous year, and the facilitated returns scheme accounted for one fifth of that figure, says the Home Office.
“I think it is right that we get as many foreign national prisoners who are in British prisons back to their country of origin as soon as possible,” Gordon Brown told the Commons when pressed on the incentives scheme.
The standard package offers prisoners up to 800 pounds to leave voluntarily but the offer was increased to 1,500 from the end of October 2006 until the 1st of January and an enhanced package of up to 3,000 pounds is available again until the end of April, the Home Office says. Criminals have to have completed the custodial part of their sentence.
There are an estimated 11,000 foreign inmates in Britain’s jails and police cells are regularly being used to deal with prison overcrowding — so doing nothing isn’t an option.
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The Socialist government has made the country the laughing stock of the whole world with one farce after another. The only way to stop this nonsense is to replace the government with one that has got some semblance of management ability and national pride.
- Posted by Mike TIs it not possible that this system could be exploited by crime syndicates? If I thought about it, I don’t suppose it’s an unimaginable leap of logic for career criminals to make.
- Posted by McShabbyIs it really the 1st of april all ready? It’s incredible how time flies in Cloud Cuckoo Land UK.
- Posted by Alfie St Taurie