General Chat

And I know about being the victim's family and what the BAS**RD
took away from us.

True Sue.
A crime can take minutes - but the effects on the victim/survivor last a lifetime

The prison system should be there to incarcerate offenders for a three reasons:

to PUNISH the offender by withdrawing his liberty and privileges and to protect the community from any possible harm. Most importantly to give victims a value, sadly expressed in years and months but it does confirm to their families that victim's lives were worth something to society.

Well, Dermot, UK prisons used to offer classes to prisoners - those who needed to, could learn to read and write, take GCSE's etc.
Learn to do something useful for when they were released.
Then that was stopped (finances).
Prison Officers were cut - prisoners are left locked in their cells.
Prison Officers now have to deal with bored, aggressive prisoners, who are managing to get drugs into prison, and Officers are being injured and suffering stress.

There WERE attempts to help prisoners - now we're back to Victorian times.

Oh - and Pistorius killed someone - that should be life imprisonment.

Oooh! English standards?

Only today, a Newspaper reported that in 2015, rape figures for England & Wales recorded by the police were the highest in the EU (35,798).

Our jails are bulging already with miserable miscreants of all sorts. An alternative 'cure' would be welcomed.

But are you going by English standards because the murder happened in South Africa and it's totally different system there.
I have a couple of cousins that live in Jo'burg and Cape town and they are not one bit pleased that his sentence has only doubled.
Even their communities are saying he should have got Life.

Sue - you seem to have misunderstood my comment - the last part of it being the most important.

The prison system is very expensive & is often ineffectual judged by the countless repeat offenders.

A criminal should be punished only to reattribute to him as far as calm reason & conscience dictates.

Dermot,
By what you are saying that he shouldn't have got a prison sentence.

My belief is if a person commits a crime they do the time no matter how long it should be.

It isn't nice to advocate a prison sentence for anybody, but it is vital that justice is administered in some form, evenly & fair for all.

It should have been LIFE never mind 12 years.

At long last justice has been seen to be served.

His sentence has been doubled after the appeal by state prosecutors.