What is wrong with our Criminal Justice system ?

The way it's supposed to work is that lifers are always transferred to an open prison when the time approaches for release, to get them used to the "real world" again. I can only assume that some board in the prison system decided that he is no longer dangerous (this is the criterion for releasing a prisoner with an indeterminate sentence) and the time was appropriate for transfer to open prison in preparation for release. By now he would have been before the Parole Board at least once. It's always a risk, but he has served the minimum term given by the judge and release is now at the Parole Board's discretion. The system is working as it is intended to. What makes it a life sentence is that even after release, he will be under supervision for life.

But the thing with open prison is that there are no locks on the doors and a prisoner can just walk out. Technically, you can't escape from one, you abscond. Jeffrey Archer spent most of his sentence for perjury in one and wrote a book about it, in which he says that the average open prison experiences one abscond a week. (Say what you like about Archer, I don't doubt him on facts. Along the way, he spent a month in a Category C closed prison and wrote another volume of prison diary about that. I read it while an inmate in one - it was in the prison library - and it matched what I was experiencing. Cat C is the lowest level of security short of an open prison, which is described as Cat D.) Michael Wheatley hit the news because of what his offences were - there are plenty more who abscond and they are usually recaptured quickly. Fairly daft thing to do... the more stupid ones go home and not surprisingly, by the time they get there, the word has gone out from the prison and they get home to find the local constabulary waiting on the doorstep.

I know what will happen now. Prisoners who abscond have clearly demonstrated that they cannot be trusted in open conditions and he won't be back there now. He's seriously blotted his copybook and will have to work hard to convince the Parole Board that he won't do it again. Basically he's back to square one.

Chris Grayling, as Secretary of State for Justice, has done some fiddling with prison to hopefully make it nastier, but he has done nothing to change the basics of the system, which have evolved over years of experience. It comes down to this: either prisoners get released and given a chance to rebuild their lives (though that's tricky as nobody wants to employ them afterwards), or they don't and anyone who commits an offence should get life without parole. Including drivers caught speeding - that's a criminal offence. If you think that would be ridiculous because it's not so bad, then where do you draw the line? What's bad and what isn't? Releasing anyone, or allowing them to be in open prison, is always a risk. There always has to be an element of judgement and sometimes we get it wrong.

The criminal was not really sentenced to 13 life terms it was only one because they all ran at the same time.

We have drifted into a system where criminals are considered to be just as much a victim of their crimes as the people they have wronged. Punishment /deterrence /and protection of the public now come a poor second to attempts at rehabilitation and redemption of the guilty.

Add the fact that we refuse to spend enough on law enforcement and the prison system and it becomes obvious why we have ended up with a system that bends over backwards to keep offenders out of the prisons where they belong

There is no such thing as Criminal Justice in America. We have criminal education and mentoring - criminals get the chance to get free food, free medical, free legal assistance and free lodging all while getting schooled by career criminals that hone their skills and develop networks for improved criminal behavior. The idea that there can be rehabilitation for the vast majority of criminals is ludicrous. They do not want to do things "straight" and never will. To them, people that live inside the rules are simply "supply" for their "demand". And the liberals want to take away guns used for home and personal protection. Criminals laugh at this. And it is getting worse every day. I am opposed to incarceration and strongly feel there needs to be a much more direct approach applied to criminals - along the lines of and eye-for-an-eye. Saudi Arabia may not be a garden spot but I think they have criminal justice down pat. You get caught stealing you lose a hand. You rape or murder you die. And justice is swift. None of this waiting around 10-15 years while appeals courts do this drawn out drama and liberal courts these criminals were misunderstood and society is to blame. Criminals stop doing things when they fear it and they do not fear US incarceration.

In Belfast we have the Provisional IRA, say what you will about them but, they hand out severe punishments to scum like this.

It ranges from knee capping (which contrary to it's name includes a bullet through the knees, ankles and wrists) to out right murder, it essentially a lynch mob.

I am all for the rule of law, but sometimes............ well lets just say I'd love some of those Muslim peado gangs to meet this lot

broadmoor would have been a better place with his background.

It's based on old laws and males have dominated through the history.