Lets us beat kids with a stick
Watching BBC News 24 this morning I viewed an interview with a member of the Prison Officer’s Association with mounting unease. The POA are seeking permission to allow Officers to carry and use ‘expendable batons’ on offenders as young as 15.
Questioned closely by the BBC interviewer the spokesman admitted that the situation had grown to critical proportions because of overcrowding in Young Offenders Establishments, and this was due to the increasing numbers of custodial sentences currently handed down by judges. He also admitted that many of the 15 year olds that he wanted to legally ‘baton’ were either mentally ill or handicapped!
What sort of society have we got? One where a parent is not allowed to smack an errant child, or a policeman clip a potential offenders ear, but where it may soon be legal for jailers to beat ill or handicapped prisoners ( and these barely more than children) behind locked doors.
Shame on us.
If anyone has any information about the Civil War service of Light Company A, Second U.S. Artillery, please contact me via this site. I am particularly interested in individual members of the battery - officers, non-commissioned officers or privates.
SPECIAL NOTICE: Over the next few weeks I will be migrating all the existing information about Battery A from this site to one decated to the subject. See Battery A 2nd US Artillery link in Blogroll below.
