How did it happen, exactly? How did the most repugnantly authoritarian and right-wing home secretary we’ve possibly ever had even get let into the Labour party, let alone put in such a position of power and responsibility as Home Secretary? As if not content with undermining such basic rights as trial by jury, presumed innocence and personal privacy, he’s now decided that if you are stuck in prison for something you didn’t do, when you get out you’re going to have to pay for the time you spent there. No, really. And this is apparently a “reasonable” thing to do.
Words fail me, they really do.
More here.
What’s next? Charging /all/ prisoners for bed and board. That’s what.
Then, when that’s taken hold, charging for information retrieval strikes me as the way forward, like in the movie Brazil.
Remember, if you hold out too long, you could jeopardise your credit rating.
What the…? I think the answer to your, no doubt rhetorical, question in the subject header is ‘oh yes’.
I think where I a wrongly convicted prisoner I would pay.
Then I would sue for lost earning potential as a CEO. About £30 million should cover.
I think charging the criminals for the cost of their stay at her majesties pleasure is a great idea. Charging the wrongly convicted, however, is plain wrong. People should be compensated for that, not forced to cough up. It’s not like the poor bastards have had a chance to earn any money in order to pay off the huge debt they’d be lumbered with thanks to the government. Oh, hang on, the government want’s everyone to be in debt now, don’t they, that’s what this new student fees bollocks is all about, too. This government is more shit than shit itself.