# FILE NAME: 00002663.soc
# TITLE: Should we be trying to reduce the number of people in prison? [3ad7d943dc779ac78fde3f0b8649f6a1]
# DESCRIPTION: 
# DATA TYPE: soc
# MODIFICATION TYPE: original
# RELATES TO: 
# RELATED FILES: 
# PUBLICATION DATE: 2025-10-12
# MODIFICATION DATE: 2025-10-12
# NUMBER ALTERNATIVES: 4
# NUMBER VOTERS: 5
# NUMBER UNIQUE ORDERS: 5
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 1: Statement 1 - In general, the prison population is too high. There are some people who should not be in prison, such as those who are there for petty crimes. The prison service is expensive and in many cases, ineffective. For many crimes, a custodial sentence is necessary to protect the public, however, for many other crimes, meaningful punishment can be achieved by other means. The prison service is over-populated and this prevents it from being able to actively focus on rehabilitation of prisoners that actually need it. Sentencing guidelines for certain crimes should be reviewed, with punishment centred around giving back to the community. Prisoners given really short sentences for petty crime do not learn their lesson from a few weeks in prison, proven by the significant rate of re-offending by these people. Alternative punishments such as community service, fines and tagging should be utilised where possible.
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 2: Statement 2 - “We should be trying to reduce the number of people in prison. We should be looking at ways of punishing people that do not involve locking them up and costing the taxpayer a fortune. For many crimes, a custodial sentence is the only way to protect the public, however there are many other crimes that could be punished in other ways. The prison service is over-populated and this prevents it from being able to actively focus on rehabilitation of prisoners that actually need it. For some crimes, meaningful punishment can be work in the community or service in some other way but this has to be a punishment and a meaningful consequence for the perpetrators. Short, sharp can be better than long, slow, softly, softly approaches. We should be looking at getting people back into society, working and being useful and we need to find better ways of reducing criminal activity.”
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 3: Statement 3 - In general, the prison population is too high. There are many people in prison who do not need to be there, and this is at a great cost to the taxpayer. The sheer volume of people in prison prevents the prison service from being able to actively focus on rehabilitation of prisoners that actually need it. Sentencing guidelines for certain crimes should be reviewed, with punishment centred around giving back to the community. Prisoners given really short sentences for petty crime do not learn their lesson from a few weeks in prison, proven by the significant rate of re-offending by these people. Alternative punishments such as community service, fines and tagging should be utilised where possible.
# ALTERNATIVE NAME 4: Statement 4 - We believe that the prison service is over-populated. The sheer volume of people in prison prevents the prison service from being able to actively focus on rehabilitation of prisoners that actually need it. Sentencing guidelines for certain crimes should be reviewed, with punishment centred around giving back to the community. Prisoners given really short sentences for petty crime do not learn their lesson from a few weeks in prison, proven by the significant rate of re-offending by these people. Alternative punishments such as community service, fines and tagging should be utilised where possible. We believe that for many crimes a custodial sentence is imposed as a punishment and to protect the public. Crime must not pay and people have to be seen to be paying for their crimes. We believe that for some crimes meaningful punishment can be work in the community or service in some other way but this has to be a punishment and a meaningful consequence for the perpetrators. We believe that short, sharp can be better than long, slow, softly, softly approaches. We believe that prison does not seem to be a disincentive to commit crime, we need to find better ways of reducing criminal activity.
1: 1,3,4,2
1: 4,2,1,3
1: 4,1,2,3
1: 3,1,2,4
1: 4,2,3,1