As a social worker who wrote hundreds of pre-sentence reports before becoming a criminologist, and someone who has been to prison before all of that, I would urge the judge in the case of the two men convicted of felling the Sycamore Gap tree to act creatively and constructively (Two men found guilty of ‘mindless, moronic’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree, 9 May).
The UK sends more people to prison, and for longer, than all other European countries. People seem to think that anything other than a prison sentence is tantamount to absolving the convicted of guilt and letting them escape punishment. Community penalties restrict liberty, and compel individuals to put something back and learn from their mistakes. Sending the two men to prison will damage their respective futures and achieve little else.
