Derek Burns has just stabbed his pregnant girlfriend Leigh-Anne Hammond a day after he was released from prison for drink driving and assaulting Leigh-Anne Hammond’s mother. What is more depressing is that fact that he has had a string of violent offences behind him including criminal damage and bodily harm. Derek Burns said “I cannot believe they let me out. I told them I would do it.”
I really feel that something has to be done about the prison system in the UK because time and time again we are hearing about stories such as this. Seemingly one of the first things Gordon Brown did when he came into power last June was to change the law to allow prisoners to be released up to 18 months early if they are serving a sentence less than 4 years.
Although David Cameron of the Conservative party says that more prison spaces should be built I’m not sure that’s really the answer. In an ideal world I would have these sorts of people locked up forever and never allowed to step a foot out of prison. But I don’t think that this is financially possible. I really don’t know what can be done, no matter what political blog you read. But I don’t think 18 days makes much of a difference. Lots of people say “I hate my ex girlfriend” but this is a not something they tend to act on.
