The son of the Pink Floyd guitarist will not be returning to university in the autumn to continue his History degree at Cambridge. Instead he’ll be looking out from behind bars as he has been sentenced to 16 months inside for violent disorder during the student protests last year.
Now I really do not know how I feel about this. Is jail really going to stop him doing anything like this again? No it’s not. He’s not going to be doing anything like this again anyway. So is it a just punishment for the crime? Well that is debatable. Wouldn’t it be better if instead of spending a year or so inside he was forced to work unpaid for a year within a charity or charitable foundation where he could do some good?
Whether it be in the UK or overseas I’m fine either way. I just don’t think prison suits every crime but the boy has already clearly learned his lesson and prison will not do anything but punish him. The public will not be kept safe from him as he’s not a danger to the public.
It is cases like these that make me wish Ken Clarke was allowed to fully take control of the justice department and not have to react to knee-jerk public reactions. I think Ken Clarke could do a fantastic job in changing the culture of crime in this country but until we change the philosophy of how we deal with crime we’ll never get anywhere.
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