Burglar freed to care for children

[AndyHB]

The judge must be puddled. The burglar should have been jailed, no question of that. Community service orders are soft options, imo. By all acounts that low life was crowing at getting off so lightly!  

If community service orders are such soft options, why is it that many criminals don't like them?  From what I have been told by both ex-cons and those who care for them on such punishments, it has to do with the fact that they don't like the fact that they have to think about what they are having to do.  In jail, everything is organised for them, from the time of meals to the activities they have to complete; whereas CSOs require them to take responsibility for their lives and their participation in the CSO activities.

[EliB]

Ecu, obviously people don't all react the same way to any given situation, all I'm pointing out is the, very real, difference between being 'upset' and 'distressed' and being 'traumatised'!! They're not on the same scale!

we'll just have to disagree on the assumptions we make


GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,

Fair do's!!! I just know exactly what both are like, and they're a world apart!! Being traumatised is a medical state.....!!

[AndrewF]

Ecu - I am with Eli on this one... - there is a world of difference between being burgled and being physically attacked in any way.
While I don't know what experience you have of both, I do know that Eli has more than enough of both to know the difference, and I also have experience of both (though thank God, the worst that happened to me was a broken nose!). I also know intimately several survivors of **** and or attempted **** and know the effect it can have, and how long that effect can last.
T - well-structured CSO's (and they increasingly are well-structured...) are not soft options, and they also have a considerably lower recidivism rate than short prison sentences. They also have the advantage of not being higher education establishments for crime. I agree that in their early days this was not necessarily the case, but I think you need to get up-to-date on this one!