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Deva, I think there's an argument that says information on the nationality of those in the prison system should be kept up to date.
There absolutely is, and thanks for this and your other helpful clarifications. I'm just trying to separate the actual grounds for concern out from the head-twisty bits of Guardian rhetoric which seem to be trying to justify a fear of 'foreigners' with an argument about how ex-prisoners might reoffend. The sentence you quote in your abstract is a good example - it leaves me with the impression that Clarke allowed over 1000... murderers to be freed, even though it does go on to qualify that as 'freed without being considered for deportation'.
I suppose the thing is that 'not keeping information about nationality up to date' sounds like a relatively minor bureaucratic oversight, and 'allowing 1000 foreign criminals, including murderers, to be freed' sounds like a huge fuck-up putting people's lives at risk, so I'm trying to figure out not only where the reality is but also how and why the 'foreign criminals' rhetoric is obscuring that reality.
Do you know what the legal basis for the deportations is, Nina? Would they have been liable for deportation if they hadn't committed crimes? It's the sort of thing I should really know about the legal system of my own country (and of course it might come in handy in the unlikely event that Tangent ever gets done for 'assaulting' a policeman on a demo) - are some forms of Leave to Remain conditional on not breaking any laws?
Mr Disco, the Guardian article in the first link says there are 1023 former prisoners in question, of whom:
five... had been convicted of committing sex offences against children. Seven had served time for other sex offences, 57 were convicted of violent offences and two convicted of manslaughter.
There were also 41 burglars, 20 drug importers, 54 convicted of assault and 27 of indecent assault. The Home Office admitted that it did not know the full details of the offences committed by more than 100 of the prisoners.
So that's 152 violent and/or sexual crimes (though I don't know where these 'murderers' have gone), 61 burglars/drug importers, 'more than 100' don't-knows, and presumably the remaining 710 (or less, depending on how many are in the 'more than 100') were convicted of offences too minor for anyone to want to list them. |
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