Wednesday 14 July 2010

Prison dilemma

There is a startling statistic that twelve percent of the prison population are Muslims, and yet they comprise around three to five percent of the general population. In other words, the offending rate is at least twice and perhaps up to four times that of the general population. However, given that the Koran contains numerous instructions to perform acts that any civilised society would consider to be criminal behaviour, this statistic is not so startling after all.Should the Koran be banned from prisons, given that it contains such instructions that undermine the efforts of the prison staff to rehabilitate the inmates? Yes of course it should be banned. This would also give the prisoners the opportunity to re-orient their ideas to that of the real world, and to break away from the brainwashing that they have already received. If that is achieved, then we should expect the re-offending rate to be reduced. It may be that the initial offending rate would also be reduced. It is worth trialling this approach, to see whether there is an improved outcome.