Just when it looked like the Conservatives - or perhaps solely justice secretary Kenneth Clarke - were warming to the virtues of community sentences, a top criminologist has questioned their value.
Social workers and care staff are more than familiar with the vagaries of the Criminal Records Bureau.
How should we react to shoplifters? Is it a crime or is it symptomatic of something else: a mental illness or a substance addiction perhaps, as this personal account on the Frank website describes?
As the UK's streets apparently descend into criminal chaos with the street corners manned by paedophiles by day and snipers by night, it is understandable that many residents fear the rise in the number of bail houses.
| Outside Left questions the thinking behind today’s social policy, with a sometimes wry, occasionally cynical, always straight-talking look at the political elite that shapes it, written by sub editor, Mike McNabb. |
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