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Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 10:41:36 AM EST
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To ease overcrowding in its prisons, Great Britain is about to bring back prison ships, also known as "floating jails."

The government has advertised for contractors to provide up to 800 places on ships in England and Wales.

Britain closed its last prison ship in 2005.

The director of the Howard League for Penal Reform has criticised the Home Office's decision to advertise for spaces on ships and warned it could lead to more prisoner re-offending.

Britain used prison ships in the U.S. during the Revolutionary War.

More Americans died in British prison ships in New York Harbor than in all the battles of the Revolutionary War.

There were at least 16 of these floating prisons anchored in Wallabout Bay on the East River for most of the war, and they were sinkholes of filth, vermin, infectious disease and despair.

In 2005, there were several news articles questioning whether the U.S. was holding terror suspects on prison ships abroad.

The UN has learned of "very, very serious" allegations that the United States is secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, notably aboard prison ships, the UN's special rapporteur on terrorism said.

While the accusations were rumours, rapporteur Manfred Nowak said the situation was sufficiently serious to merit an official inquiry.

"There are very, very serious accusations that the United States is maintaining secret camps, notably on ships," the Austrian UN official told AFP, adding that the vessels were believed to be in the Indian Ocean region.

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    • Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try | 5 comments (5 topical)
    Re: Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try (none / 0) (#1)
    by Gabriel Malor on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 11:05:34 AM EST
    I'm curious why the one fellow thinks that floating prisons will lead to greater "re-offending." The article doesn't have any more on it than the bit TL quoted.

    Does anyone know why floating prisons would lead to greater recidivism than normal prisons?

    Re: Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try (none / 0) (#4)
    by John Mann on Sun Oct 22, 2006 at 03:02:30 PM EST
    Does anyone know why floating prisons would lead to greater recidivism than normal prisons?

    Well, some people just love being on the ocean.

    Parent

    Re: Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try (none / 0) (#2)
    by jarober on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 12:22:32 PM EST
    Trying to compare prison ships of the 18th century to anything done now is absurd.  To get an idea how absurd, why don't you compare 18th century jails to modern ones?  Modern jails may be pretty bad, but they aren't the death traps that 18th century ones were.

    Re: Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try (none / 0) (#3)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 04:13:40 PM EST
    Oh, did I link to the same article? Whoops. It was a very sad read. The unbelievable inhumanity to man. We still do it. We're just more sophisticated. We don't crowd them in. We just make them disappear. Either way, they still suffer needlessly.

    It's called...oh, what's the word I'm looking for?

    Evolution.

    Re: Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try (none / 0) (#5)
    by HK on Sun Oct 22, 2006 at 04:47:05 PM EST
    Floating jails?  I wish they would give reducing crime a try.  Hold on, would that not have the same effect of reducing prison over-crowding too?  I might be onto something here...

    Britain to Give Floating Jails Another Try | 5 comments (5 topical)