A SCOTTISH "ALCATRAZ"

 13. Feb. 2010. – 14:56:02

There is increasing confusion of whether or not the Ministry of Justice has persuaded or succeeded in that persuasion to the judiciary that it reduce the numbers being imprisoned. There has also been disquiet that magistrates are making too many suspended sentence disposals. Whether that is to imply that the sentences should not have been suspended and incarceration should have been immediate or that they  should have not been imposed at all is a moot point. What is not in doubt is that this government has not provided enough prison places.
The Belgians have had similar problems and in an attempt to alleviate the situation have paid their cousins in Holland to take 500 prisoners for £26 million per annum. What a sensible idea!

Dartmoor Prison is perhaps the best known gaol in England. Opened in 1812 in its hayday it was a fearful place where it could arguably be said that the cure was as bad as the disease. It no longer has the cache of holding the country`s worst offenders. It is a category C institution. Dangerous convicts are distributed throughout the country.

Taking the Belgium/Holland example a stage further there are dozens if not hundreds of uninhabited Scottish islands in the Atlantic. Is there any good reason cost excepted why a Scottish "Alcatraz" could not be built and its space rented to England? The weather`s conducive to being active to keep warm and the water`s very cold and deep in places. True there are no sharks but then many islands are tens of miles from shore unlike Alcatraz which was about one mile off shore from San Francisco.
It`s not often Belgium sets an example to the rest of Europe but in this matter I give their authorities five gold stars.