The Scandal of Parkhurst Jail
SIR,--Mr Wheatley says that 'the mentally ill should never be subject to criminal action by the courts,' yet in the next paragraph he condemns, among others. 'the rapists' and 'the sodomites.' But these are the people who are, more often than not, mentally ill and who need the kind of help a prison cannot provide.
Mr Wheatley wants to prevent crime. So do I, but on the whole I do not think prison can do that. If we want punishment to be effective, perhaps we should imprison all criminals for life, since sentences of five. ten or twenty years are merely putting off the event, not solving the problem. As the recent Government White Paper tells us. for the majority of criminals long periods in prison 'do not fit them for re-entry into society.'
Mr Wheatley is kind enough to say he respects my opinion. I am only sorry that I cannot say the same for his, but until he can produce evidence that the imprisonment of alcoholics, sexual offenders, murderers, recidivists, and a large number of petty thieves and shoplifters, advances our community in any way. I shall continue in my belief that it is the prisons, and not the prisoners, that are 'the pariahs of society.'
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