It's A Crime The Numbers Still Free

Maybe I am a simple soul, but I always understood that I lived in a fair and just society, where criminals were punished according to their misdeeds. Once upon a time if a criminal was sentenced to 25 years that is exactly how long he could expect to spend incarcerated. Then some very woolly minded and liberal thinking people decided that if the criminal behaved himself whilst in prison he could have some remission on his sentence. Why, in Heavens name, should a prisoner be rewarded for behaving himself whilst in prison? The fact that he is in prison is because he has misbehaved himself in the first place. He has broken the law. Gradually these same people brought about a change in the law. Penal reform gave the prisoners more and more chances to reduce the length of their sentence. By now we had serious problems with overcrowding in our prisons and so in effect whatever sentence you had handed down to you, you were more or less guaranteed that you would only serve about a half of it. You would be released “on licence” and supposedly you had to conform to a set of rules and be regularly checked up on to confirm that you had mended your ways. If you hadn’t you would be recalled to serve the rest of your sentence. Well that was the theory behind early release, but like many things it may sound good in theory but it just doesn’t seem to work in practice.




I wonder if you are aware that in this fair country of ours, at this precise moment there are almost one thousand (yes you have read that right - ONE THOUSAND) criminals who should have been returned to prison, still at large. This figure includes twenty murderers, fifteen rapists, one hundred and forty burglars and five paedophiles.

The Ministry of Justice stated that at the end of March there were 954 offenders still at large in England and Wales who had been recalled to prison for breaching terms of their release. Among them were some criminals who should have been returned to prison up to TWENTYFIVE YEARS AGO. A total of nineteen offenders who should have been recalled between 1994 and 1999 still remain at large. A further 142 have been on the run for between five and ten years, and in addition 180 criminals released from prison early in a scheme to reduce overcrowding since 2007 are still at large.

Of the 954 still at large at the end of last month, 158 were originally convicted of violent crimes. That total includes 20 murderers, 51 criminals convicted of grievous bodily harm, and three with offences of assaulting police officers. Thirty three were sexual offenders, including five paedophiles, 15 rapists and 10 with records of sexual assault. There were also 140 burglars, 98 fraudsters and 182 drugs offenders.

Police can “advertise” wanted notices for criminals who have not been successfully recalled, but only thirteen currently appear on the Crimewatch website. Is this because the police are afraid that they may breach the criminal’s right? I would have thought once a person is a convicted criminal he has given up his rights.

Wanted posters are a very efficient means of catching criminals because they warn people , and they (hopefully) bring criminals to justice and they show the community who the criminals are.

The wanted poster must warn people about the dangerous fugitives who are at large. The poster gives a picture of the wanted person. When making the poster one must keep in mind the crime itself; you have to give a detailed description of the events that occurred during the event. Then the officer will usually give some remarks on how to handle the criminal, if apprehended. The most important element is the reward.

Wanted posters bring people to justice by putting the criminal's face in the people's hands. The poster shows the community who's dangerous and keeps the people aware that there are fugitives loose in their community. The picture can be either an artist's sketch or photograph. An artist's sketch is a rendering of the suspect through the eyes of the witness.
The photo should be the one most recently taken. Following the picture there should be a quick history of the criminal, including date of birth, sex, height, weight, hair, eyes, scars or marks, occupation, social security number, nationality, place of birth, and all known alias'.

So what has gone wrong?

The first, and most obvious thing, is that the early release and recall system just isn’t working. If it was we would not have nearly one thousand criminals on the run at this precise moment. It seems to me it is a total waste of time making laws which cannot be applied. If an early released criminal fails to comply with the terms of his early release he should be back inside before he has chance to draw breath. So how come nearly one thousand of these miscreants are roaming free? Someone somewhere has failed to keep tabs on these criminals. Is it the failure of probation officers, the police or who? Pardon the pun (which is unintended) but it is a crime that these miscreants are on the loose. Somebody somewhere has failed in the discharge of their duty. Heads should roll.