Apathy Jack writes:

Further to the book I was talking about yesterday: I am a card-carrying communist in all areas except that of crime and punishment. My attitude towards crime is pretty much summed up in the following excerpt from Wasting Police Time (which is, I admit, an attack on “liberals” – of which I pretty much am one – so substitute the word ‘liberals’ with ‘people who disagree with Jack, so are Wrong’...)

...

Jail is totally misunderstood by liberals. ‘Look at the reoffending rate,’ they say.
Yes, criminals reoffend (though they reoffend more after community sentences than prison). They reoffend because they are criminals. They are greedy and lazy people who enjoy breaking the law.
If someone is thrown in jail and they don’t reoffend when they come back out, great.
If they do reoffend, put them in jail again – only, this time, for longer.
Honest people go out day after day and earn a pittance without breaking the law. Why don’t liberals try to ‘understand’ this behaviour?