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Britain goes Dutch for floating prison
The Telegraph ^ | 12/2/2007 | Patrick Sawer

Posted on 12/01/2007 8:21:55 PM PST by bruinbirdman

The Government could buy a Dutch prison ship to help ease the pressure on overcrowded British jails.

Officials from the Ministry of Justice have been dispatched to the Netherlands to examine the possibility of bringing across a high security ship, capable of holding as many as 200 prisoners.

The prison population rose to 81,455 last week, leaving just nine officially empty places in the overstretched system.

There are 177 prisoners currently being held in police cells, with another 400 cells placed on standby.

Jack Straw, the Secretary of State for Justice, ordered discussions with the Dutch in an attempt to create much needed space. A source said: "Jack wants this all sorted out early in the new year. Officials are over there arranging which vessels we go for."

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: "We continue to investigate all options for the development of prison capacity.

"We have good relationships with the Dutch Ministry of Justice and value their expertise in the operation of prison vessels. We are also aware that one or more of their current vessels may become available in the future.

Last year, the former home secretary Charles Clarke was criticised for selling Britain's only prison ship, the HMP Weare, which held 400 inmates, for £2.5 million.

Figures published last week showed a 17 per cent increase in the number of sex offenders, burglars and violent offenders who received just a caution. A total of 350,000 were given warnings rather than being taken to court.

Mr Straw said last month that he believed criminals facing less than a year in prison should be handed community penalties instead.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Good idea. Mr. Strawman should have a chat with Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, AZ.
1 posted on 12/01/2007 8:21:57 PM PST by bruinbirdman
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To: bruinbirdman

A long enough tether.


2 posted on 12/01/2007 8:26:43 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: bruinbirdman; Pharmboy
Britain has a pretty poor record with prison ships ... if there was a war crime during the American Revolution, consider the HMS Jersey in Wallabout Bay. See Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument on Fort Greene Park. Let's hope Britain does it better this time.
3 posted on 12/01/2007 8:29:17 PM PST by NonValueAdded (Fred Dalton Thompson for President)
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To: NonValueAdded

More men died on the infamous prison hulks than were killed in actual combat during the Revolutionary War.


4 posted on 12/01/2007 8:33:00 PM PST by sinanju
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To: NonValueAdded

They should outsource to India or China. After a few years in an Indian or Chinese prison the percentage of repeat offenders would drop like a stone. New offenders might even drop.


5 posted on 12/01/2007 8:42:45 PM PST by Dutch Boy
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To: bruinbirdman

Try Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Tent jail.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a colorful and controversial
character who has instituted severe policies at Phonex’s
Maricopa County Jail since taking office in 1993.

According to his bio on the Maricopa County Web site, he
enjoys being known as “America’s toughest sheriff.”

He got nationwide attention when he established the
Maricopa County tent city for inmates.

More than 2,000 prisoners live without smoking, coffee,
pornographic magazines, movies and unrestricted television
in all jails.

The Rumor says the meals cost less than 40 cents but the
cost figure is actually less than 20 cents.

Arpaio has also instituted what he calls “Hard Knocks
High”, the only accredited high school in an American
jail.

That, along with an anti-drug program, says Arpaio, has
resulted in a high percentage of his inmates leaving jail
without their addictions and few of them returning.


6 posted on 12/01/2007 8:46:23 PM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Rudy,Romney,McCain, Huckabee will send a self-abused stomped elephant to the DRNC.)
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To: bruinbirdman

heck the U.S. can buy a few of those and start floating off shore all the illegal aliens to the bermuda triangle.

what a great idea!


7 posted on 12/01/2007 8:47:50 PM PST by television is just wrong (deport all illegal aliens NOW. Put all AMERICANS TO WORK FIRST. END Welfare)
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To: NonValueAdded

British prison ships was the first thing I thought of.


8 posted on 12/01/2007 8:57:29 PM PST by rdl6989
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To: rdl6989; NonValueAdded; bruinbirdman

I thought of the prison ships of old, as well. I wonder if Amnesty Int’l and the rest of the Left will scream and carry on about THIS?

Oh, wait, it’s a Leftist government.

Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.


9 posted on 12/01/2007 9:02:25 PM PST by Old Sarge (This tagline in memory of FReeper 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub)
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To: Old Sarge

Leftists don’t know/care about the sacrifices that have been made for our country, so they probably don’t know about the prison ships of old.


10 posted on 12/01/2007 9:09:57 PM PST by rdl6989
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To: bruinbirdman

Just buy an old barge for all the sex offenders (at least all the violent and child-abusing sex offenders), tow it out into the middle of the North Atlantic, and sink it. Problem solved (for awhile).


11 posted on 12/01/2007 9:15:37 PM PST by Enchante (Democrat terror-fighting motto: "BLEAT - CHEAT - RETREAT - DEFEAT - REPEAT")
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To: bruinbirdman

Just buy an old barge for all the sex offenders (at least all the violent and child-abusing sex offenders), tow it out into the middle of the North Atlantic, and sink it. Problem solved (for awhile).


12 posted on 12/01/2007 9:15:38 PM PST by Enchante (Democrat terror-fighting motto: "BLEAT - CHEAT - RETREAT - DEFEAT - REPEAT")
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To: bruinbirdman

I sorta like the idea of a bunch of sand crab ragheads in sheets stuck in cells on a ship being tossed around in the North Sea. Brown stains down the back of their sheets, puke stains down the front.

East is that way, no, it’s that way....wait, East is up..........oh Allah save me.....urrrrrppppp!


13 posted on 12/01/2007 9:16:11 PM PST by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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To: sinanju

“More men died on the infamous prison hulks than were killed in actual combat during the Revolutionary War.”


Well, that seals it then. Use the boats!


14 posted on 12/01/2007 9:18:11 PM PST by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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To: television is just wrong
"heck the U.S. can buy a few of those and start floating off shore all the illegal aliens to the bermuda triangle."

Ike did just that. He shipped thousands of wetbacks about 500 miles south of the Mexican border.

yitbos

15 posted on 12/01/2007 9:21:54 PM PST by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds." -- Ayn Rand)
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To: rdl6989

But they’ll think it’s agood pace for anti-progressive elements of society - “Joyships”, as Orwell would have termed them.


16 posted on 12/01/2007 9:22:18 PM PST by Old Sarge (This tagline in memory of FReeper 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub)
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To: bruinbirdman

Why not build a prison submarine for the most incorrigible and recidivist of the prisoners, and have it “accidentally” sink every 6 months or so?

Talk about a deterrent!


17 posted on 12/01/2007 9:36:39 PM PST by Don W (I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.)
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To: NonValueAdded

Yeah...the words “British prison ships” don’t go down very well on this side of the Atlantic. About 11,000 patriots died within the ones in NY Harbor. From all descriptions, hell itself would have been a step up from these stinking places.


18 posted on 12/02/2007 9:07:44 AM PST by Pharmboy (Democrats lie because they have to)
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To: bruinbirdman

They would not need more prison places if they executed all the murderers, rapists and paedophiles.


19 posted on 12/05/2007 10:57:24 AM PST by Hatter6
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