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I'm amazed that someone (who committed 40+ thefts that) they worked so hard to catch got less than 4 years in jail. Perhaps they're wasting their time on petty

I'm amazed that someone (who committed 40+ thefts that) they worked so hard to catch got less than 4 years in jail. Perhaps they're wasting their time on petty criminals. I suspect that computers will help out quite a bit. Similar to other topics, computers will first outperform most people, then ultimately everyone, but computers plus people will outperform just computers.

noir_lord 10y ago
In UK in the general case none-violent crimes don't carry sentences like in some other countries. It's a policy I largely agree with.
onion2k 10y ago
4 years in prison is approximately 5% of a typical lifespan. That seems like a lot to me.
- Ntrails 10y ago
  He will likely serve 2 years at most, and after those two years one could reasonably predict he'll re-offend. In which case I'm reminded of porridge: "You are an habitual criminal, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard, and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner." Now, apparently the guy never thought he'd go down for all of his crimes, but he knew arrest was a real risk. Same with prison. I'm afraid I don't have a strong opinion on what the best choices are that a criminal justice system can make. Clearly you aren't going to scare people straight with hardnosed punishments though, because their evaluation of risks are not what you think they should be.
  - mattmanser 10y ago
    Not sure if you're talking about the individual or reoffending in general, but according to HM prison service the reoffending chance would be 36℅: http://open.justice.gov.uk/reoffending/prisons/ http://open.justice.gov.uk/reoffending/prisons/
    - Ntrails 10y ago
      I was basing it entirely on the guy as described by the article (as in, I was making wild assumptions). Super cool site. That data would be pretty fun to play with though, age/offense count/previous offences/family etc would all be cool buckets to play with. Plus all the things I don't think of off the top of my head
UVB-76 10y ago
If your argument is that it takes a lot of resources to apprehend and convict someone, only to send them away for a mere four years, by far the largest cost in all of this is that of keeping them in jail. It costs around £40k/year to keep someone in jail, not including the opportunity cost of lost productivity. Will the prospect of an eight year prison sentence make someone less likely to commit the original offence(s) than a four year sentence? Probably not. Will it reduce the risk of reoffending once they are released? It will probably have the opposite effect.

noir_lord 10y ago

In UK in the general case none-violent crimes don't carry sentences like in some other countries. It's a policy I largely agree with.

onion2k 10y ago

4 years in prison is approximately 5% of a typical lifespan. That seems like a lot to me.

Ntrails 10y ago
He will likely serve 2 years at most, and after those two years one could reasonably predict he'll re-offend. In which case I'm reminded of porridge: "You are an habitual criminal, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard, and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner." Now, apparently the guy never thought he'd go down for all of his crimes, but he knew arrest was a real risk. Same with prison. I'm afraid I don't have a strong opinion on what the best choices are that a criminal justice system can make. Clearly you aren't going to scare people straight with hardnosed punishments though, because their evaluation of risks are not what you think they should be.
- mattmanser 10y ago
  Not sure if you're talking about the individual or reoffending in general, but according to HM prison service the reoffending chance would be 36℅: http://open.justice.gov.uk/reoffending/prisons/ http://open.justice.gov.uk/reoffending/prisons/
  - Ntrails 10y ago
    I was basing it entirely on the guy as described by the article (as in, I was making wild assumptions). Super cool site. That data would be pretty fun to play with though, age/offense count/previous offences/family etc would all be cool buckets to play with. Plus all the things I don't think of off the top of my head

UVB-76 10y ago

If your argument is that it takes a lot of resources to apprehend and convict someone, only to send them away for a mere four years, by far the largest cost in all of this is that of keeping them in jail. It costs around £40k/year to keep someone in jail, not including the opportunity cost of lost productivity. Will the prospect of an eight year prison sentence make someone less likely to commit the original offence(s) than a four year sentence? Probably not. Will it reduce the risk of reoffending once they are released? It will probably have the opposite effect.