Solution to so many problems

It seems as if every other week there is a news report about how our prisons are over crowded, so convicted felons are are having to be released early to allow new in, or worse still just being given cautions or fines etc...

Well I have the solution, bring in an eight hour shift pattern and send the inmates to work (ideally in chain gangs - after all who can cause trouble after eight hours hard labour), cleaning up the streets (the country is a mess), repairing the transport networks or other menial tasks that the government is always harping on about that there are not enough resources or manpower to cope with the demand. In fact it could create more jobs as extra guards would be required to supervise.

This way the inmates are contributing back to society rather than getting a free ride in prison, getting an education (I'd love to be able to study for free), playing PlayStation's, learning new hot wiring/lock picking skills or getting drunk or high on the bountiful drugs and booze apparently available in the prisons. Yes they can be paid for the work but this means they have to give say a generous 100% to the prisons for their bed and board (after all it costs to house one prisoner in the region of £40K per annum) also in some cases some of the earned money could be paid to the victims of crime as compensation. After all crime is sometimes contributed to the fact that people don't have anything to do - well now they have something to do.


In reality each two man cell could house three (a shift pattern of say 2pm-10pm, 10pm-6am, 6am-2pm) - this increases possible prison placement by a third. If needed be send em out on 12 hour shifts and you could double the prison capacity , and at least then prison would be more of a punishment and possible deterrent.

It's a great solution, everyone wins. The prison places increase (at no real extra cost), a prison sentence becomes more of a deterrent than it currently is, the tax payer saves money and much needed improvements to the country can happen. Okay your going to get all these namby pamby human rights do gooders complaining, but surely they have forfeited their rights by committing the crime. Anyhow most people work 8-10hr days so it's no different really. I'm not saying house them in dungeons, just make them work hard to pay for their keep.

There that was an easy one to sort out, now let's try for world peace.