ANOTHER VIEW : The Singapore solution
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Your support makes all the difference.Every day our media reports at least one horrific crime; more often than not we see a long list of serious crimes. My postbag regularly includes letters demanding positive government action to bring this tidal wave of crime under control. In my view a great majority of the British public is saying: "enough is enough - we want action". Equally, victims of these crimes are beginning to demand that the mental and physical pain they suffer must be inflicted on those who carry out these crimes.
The courts already have several levels of punishment available, but these are patently not a sufficient deterrent to control the criminal fraternity. I have always admired and supported the work of the probation service, but in my estimation we now need a more positive public deterrent for wrongdoers.
Our prisons are full to overflowing. They are holding more prisoners than ever before, but still we have a problem. This may be because the criminal population regards prison as a holiday camp with a free and easy regime - no harsh punishment, no real deterrent. We obviously need some new ideas, which must be positive and effective. William Whitelaw tried the "short sharp shock" when he was Home Secretary some years ago. Presumably, the shock was not big enough, because it did not work.
We have to make the shock big enough and I believe I have the answer: the "Singapore solution". In Singapore, criminals are caned. The introduction of caning there has been so effective that it is now being positively considered by many of the American states. The application of four or six strokes of a rattan or bamboo cane of controlled length, weight and wetness would be just as feared here as it is in Singapore.
For many people, this would amount to little more than the reintroduction of birching - hardly a sufficient deterrent for some hardened offenders. The application of this punishment needs modernising. There is nothing more modern than television as a medium of influence. What could be better than the application of six strokes of the cane to an offender, to be shown before a prime-time television audience of millions? A slot before or after the lottery every Saturday night would be ideal!
Pain and humiliation would be suffered publicly by the offender, and it would be witnessed by the victim: an important point, because these days the victim is so often ignored. Victims of crime need to know that their attackers have suffered equal pain, both mental and physical.
Combining the traditional punishment of caning with a modern means of communication strikes me as an ideal way of creating the fear and influence needed to provide a deterrent to those who might offend, and a powerful punishment for those who do.
The writer, a JP, is the Conservative MP for Batley and Spen.
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