Reformed Offenders or dangerous pretenders?

When we think of convicts a lot of our minds are made up before we hear the end of the sentence. Is it fear, ignorance or just straight up discrimination? Why is society more likely to accept a celebrity who has committed an offence over a regular person when after all, there are more regular people in the world than celebrities?

How easy is it to rehabilitate a prisoner? The 1974 Re-offending act is a law that allows a convict’s criminal record to be wiped clean after a certain amount of time depending on the severity of the crime and the age of the offender. Offenders who are given sentences over 48 months are automatically excluded from the act as their crimes are deemed too serious that their record cannot be wiped clean. Is this fair? Should everyone be given the chance to reform themselves?

Who should be responsible for rehabilitating offenders is it the prison services duty to do so or the prisoner himself? For the first time in history the definition of a prison has changed from simply being a place to house prisoners to a place of reform and rehabilitation.

There are charities and companies that are specifically there to help reform prisoners such as Halfords Academy and the charity Clean Sheet, by means of offering advice and support as well as employment courses, mentoring and employment schemes My question is, is this knowledge accessible for everyone? Is the good work of these charities highlighted enough? And what is being done to increase the amount of companies

and charities like these?

Reformed Offenders or dangerous pretenders? How hard is it for ex-offenders to reintegrate into society? What sort of stigmas are they faced with? And what is the general perception of the public on re-offenders? Would you feel safe living in a community with an ex offender? What crimes are deemed too serious for a person to be able to reform themselves?

All of these questions could represent another blog post in themselves but this blog is to get you thinking and understanding a point of view that you perhaps haven’t thought of.