Some Sentences on Prison Sentences

Can someone explain to me the purpose, value or social usefulness of sending a man to jail for six months because he swam in front of two competing boats in a race? There's no disputing it was stupid, illegal, ruined a national and internationally important event – at least in the eyes of the BBC and two Universities. So that it was a court case is not in dispute – that it was a public order offence is equally both obvious and conceded.

But in a country where we have the highest percentage in Europe of prisoners handed custodial sentences, there are surely more creative, socially responsible and hopeful ways of dealing with a lone protester who interrupted a race.

What is the judicial system for, and what does the criminal justice process seek to achieve. Punishment, and even that word needs some qualifying – but punishment is not an end in  itself. What was the six month sentence intended to achieve for society, for the offender, and for both as they look to the future beyond the crime and the sentence?

Is the sentence intended to act as a deterrent? But where are the hordes queuing up to swim in front of boats on the Thames, or steal the flag at the last green of the Open Golf, or bring a vuvuzela horn to the last night of the Proms and blow it annoyingly during Land of Hope and Glory?

To be sensible. Punishment, let's use the word. Is its purpose deterrence in which case will this deter him from doing the same thin g next year? Probably, but there are more efficient ways of doing that even if he wanted to do the swim again?

Or is the intention to exact retribution for an act of selfish stupidity that ruined the enjoyment of thousands? But are we saying the only way we can think of to express social punishment is to take away liberty and further criminalise the offender in an institution at ridiculous expense to the very people he has offended against?

If the intention is to correct, rehabilitate, re-orientate a person's sense of social responsibility and moral thinking, then the last place suited for that is a prison where it is accepted there are far too few resources, and a deeply counter-productive environment for such mental, emotional and social self-reinvention.

Now if the intention is restitution, seeking to put right what was done wrongly, making recompense for loss or hurt to others, then I fail to see how he can do that while locked away from the very public to whom he owes a debt, and again, at their considerable expense.

Would several hundred community hours of work have been better? Oh, I think so. Would a fine have been more appropriate – fines depend on how much money a person has anyway. If he is a millionaire then a few thousand pounds is more inconvenience than restitution or any other alleged good consequence of punishment. If he is on benefits, then a fine merely goes unpaid and we are back to jail with no get out of jail free card.

So I'm still asking – how does sending him to prison provide a satisfying resolution to a disrupted boat race? We are not talking about a football fan inciting violence, or behaving in a way likely to endanger life and limb around them. There was no crowd who would become a threat to public order lining the Thames that day. But to require the offender to repay the public money this whole incident incurred, and make restitution for ruining the hard work and enjoyment of many others, that could surely be better achieved by community service, a re-education in what makes a society good and just, and a reminder that human community cannot flourish unless there is a mutual recognition of rights, and obligations, and these balanced in socially responsible actions.