Easy Offender

On one hand they take away a uniform, on the other they want to introduce one, hmm gotta love British politics.

Unless you have been in the bowls of an Easy cruise ship for the past week you will already know that Blair and Prescott are putting their weight (the joke is too easy) behind Bluewater's plans to ban hoodies and baseball caps - now the Home Office plans to make young offenders wear a uniform while they undertake community service orders like planting vegetables or painting walls.

Fortunatly this has been labelled as a 'nasty gimmick', I mean how rediculous does it get - Prescott has described Hoodies and baseball caps on youths as a form of uniform, yet his government want to introduce a uniform for the youths that have actually committed a crime.

The only thing this will do is make the young offenders feel isolated, humiliated and just pretty crap, it will probably lead to them not turning up for their community service work, which will lead to a prison term, which will lead to more money having to be spent on an already stretched prison service - good one!

In a report on BBC News 24 one of the 'experts' said that most young offenders had a literacy level of around 7 years old - that's scandelous - what they need is better education, a chance to develop their basic literacy skills to a level where they can get a job and contribute to society - not being put in a uniform, named, shamed and made to join the chain gang.

Harry Fletcher from the National Association of Probation Officers said that Introducing uniforms, caps, badges or naming and shaming offenders is likely to degrade them, make them resentful and not turn up for community punishment

Oh and if you are wondering why the headline is Easy Offender - that's simple - the BBC report also showed footage of an American Chain Gang - they where all wearing Bright Orange - this included Baseball Caps!

Just to cover my arse - in case Stelios takes offense at the linking of Easy Group to Young Offenders I will make this statement:

"The connection between Easy Cruise and Young Offenders in no way links the company to any form of criminal activity, it is purely down to the fact that the youth on the chain gang where wearing orange and the Easy Group use orange as their corporate colour

"I could have used Orange - as in the telco - instead of Easy Group - but it didn't really work!"

News sites reporting on this story include:
Sky News Chain Gang Gear To Shame Yobs
Daily Express Punishment Uniforms 'nasty Gimmick'
Channel 4 News Yobs face chain-gang uniform shame
Guardian Unlimited US-style uniforms for yobs

SIDE NOTE: When I was spell checking (using Bloggers spell checker) this blog, I had to make Bloggers spell checker learn to spell the word Colour - yes it has a U in it!!

Related Tags [Technorati]
Politics Chain Gang Bluewater Government Home Office