This system throws up many anomalies,
for example, we produce an abundance of wealth, but the majority
struggle for a decent life. Is that beyond our imagination to put
right? I'm sure we can all come up with a fairer way of producing and
distributing the wealth we create, but it would have to be outside
capitalism to have any pretence at fairness. Another anomaly in this
quagmire of greed we call the capitalist system, is “law and
order”. The figures for England and Wales, for the year ending
March 2013, state that there were 8.6 million crimes. This is a
decrease of 9% on the previous year, it is also the lowest figure
since 1981 and is less than half the peak figure of 1995.
So there we have it, falling crime
rates across the country, and that's where the anomaly comes in. The
prison population in this country has been rising steadily over the
years. In England and Wales since 1993 to the present time the prison
population has grown from 40,000, to today's figure of 97,000, in
Scotland it rose from approximately 6,000 in 1997 to today's figure
of around 7,000. Only in Northern Ireland has the figure fallen I,600
in 1996 to approximately 1,400 today, but Northern Ireland is a
special case because of the “troubles” and the state's brutal
repression, in the 80's and 90's.
This land of falling crime has more
than 150 prisons and we incarcerate more of our people than any other
European country. In England and Wales it is 149 per 100,000 of the
population, with Scotland following close behind with 139 per
100,000. How do you square that circle, falling crime, increase
prison population? One way to look at it, is that across the country
as a whole, we have approximately 1% of the population with mental
health problems, our prison population has 10% with mental health
problems. So that would be one answer, we lock people up who have
mental health problems, instead of offering them care and treatment.
Just another brutal statistic from a brutal, uncaring, exploitative
system.
