Prison is just another form of 'welfare dependency' for criminals, UK Tory MP says

[T_i_B]

Posting here as I think it's important to have some US perspective on Ben Gummer's comments and whether or not he's talking gibberish. Make of this what you will.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9856933/Prison-is-just-another-form-of-welfare-dependency-for-criminals-Tory-MP-says.html

Ben Gummer, a ministerial aide and Tory MP for Ipswich, said Britain’s spending on "ramming people" in jail is "lunacy" at a time of austerity.

"We simply cannot afford to carry on spending as we are currently," Mr Gummer said.

The US campaign argues that prison hardens minor offenders and can end up costing the taxpayer more by turning people to lives of crime and state dependency.

"After decades of mass incarceration, it is the Right in America that has been questioning the wisdom of imprisoning a huge numbers of people at enormous cost and negligible return," Mr Gummer said. "It is Republicans who have recognised that an increasing reliance on imprisonment as a policy solution creates a system that ‘feeds on itself’, exacerbating the very social problems that lead to a rise in crime."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/9856966/Britains-spending-on-ramming-people-in-jail-is-lunacy-at-a-time-of-austerity.html

[ck4829]

1. If Righties take it to heart here, they will probably want an army of 'Zimmermen' on patrol

And can act as judge, jury, and executioner on the spot.

[LiberalLoner]

2. That is exactly what they want. They no longer want a large workforce - they

want the population of the earth reduced by about, I don't know, 90%. And they will do whatever it takes to get there, as quickly as they can. They see the dwindling resources just like we do - water, oil, arable land, crops that can be grown in an era of climate change - and they do not want to fight us for those resources. So they are killing us off now.

[Starry Messenger]

3. He's ranting.

Republicans in the US love prison--they are privatizing jails, to horrific result.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/gop-prison-privatization-ohio-florida-minnesota

It isn't Republicans in CA who moved to reduce the prison population. And while some of it is related to cost cutting, I think much of it comes from recognizing that we were putting too many people in the system for minor offenses.

(Love how he goes on and on about austerity making things "creative". The words of a man who has never missed a meal.)

[T_i_B]

5. "The words of a man who has never missed a meal"

How did you guess?

Ben Gummer is the son of John Selwyn Gummer. Cabinet minister during the Thatcher & Major governments.

Selwyn-Gummer was until recently MP for the Suffolk Coastal constituency, next door to Ben Gummer's Ipswich constituency. He had a good reputation as a local MP and that I can't see how that couldn't have played a part in Ben Gummer winning Ipswich off Labour in 2010.

[Fumesucker]

4. There's nothing more bipartisan than being tough on crime

As long as the criminals are part of the 99% that is.