to deliberation-dabbling if it’s free.
i like it because it sums up what my blog will eventually be all about, just dipping into my thoughts and writing about them, like i’m dabbling in my deliberations, like i’m deliberation-dabbling.
this plan could be pushed to the ground, held down with the sole of a sturdy boot and shot in the back of the head though if it’s been taken. only time will tell.
Hopsin - Ill Mind of Hopsin 4
If you haven’t heard this, or this guy, you have to listen to it.
Hopsin’s got one of the best flows I’ve come across in a while.
My housemate drew my attention to Hopsin through this song and I love it and the rest of his music.
n x
tumblr, it’s been a while.
i’ve had what i consider to be a substantial amount of work over the last couple of weeks; however, some might not rate it too highly on the “Slacking to Overwhelmed” work-amount scale.
that being said, the work i did have to do is finished and so for the time being, aside from lectures and a few brief glances across the ever-so-slightly different, umpteenth edition pages of my textbooks for what is known as ‘wider reading’ i am essentially free from the constraints of academic essays for a while.
thus, in an attempt to be proactive and utilise the time i have as best i can i’ve decided there’s a few things i want to do before i start to have actual work requirements again.
little ‘side projects’ so to speak.
albeit perhaps not done in their entirety, but being on the first few steps of the ladder when the flood comes is better than being firmly rooted to the ground i guess.
firstly, i want to record some of my songs properly.
i’ve got equipment in my room with a combined value of more than probably anything i’ve ever owned before yet i’ve still not had the time to use it properly, so my first intention during this work-less intermission is to just get a few songs down, do a bit of post-recording mixing and see how ‘professional’ i can get them to sound.
secondly, i want to start blogging more; i think when i get into the swing of things i’ll do it without really thinking like i do with tweeting (@nickpwriley) :- it’s like a second nature sort of thing so i think that if i can get into the habit of taking photos during my day and remembering the arguably interesting things that happen to me then i might be able to turn this blog into something worth visiting.
thirdly, i want to put some time into a project i thought up last year, the infamous antics club, which i wanted to start up as a bit of a conglomerate of bands and clothing lines with similar styles and passions all with the aim of creating a hub of the ‘arts’ that people with a specific taste could go to to keep up to date with the goings on in that world. i want to work with clothing lines and get limited edition things going on, i want to put on gigs that showcase bands from around the country. it’s ambitious but i like the idea of it in my head so i guess it’s worth a try - i started it last year but it died out because i didn’t put enough time into it; my own fault.
oh and reading, i’ve got a bunch of books i want to read too so that can go on the list of things to do.
and writing up rough business plans for a few money-making ideas i’ve got; nothing huge but a few start up ideas that i think i could manage to run whilst i’m at university especially seeing as they give out grants and such to students with business ideas.
yeah, i like that list, i think that’ll tie me over for a while, keep me busy and all that.
i also want a new blog theme, but it’s quite late/early, depending on how you look at it, so i might have to make that tomorrow (later on today)
n x
I don’t have a good enough camera or someone to take photos of me in what I’m wearing for it to work - the best look books comprise of good fashion sense and really well taken photos!
I think I’ll blog about them too.
Primarily because I’m interested in both, secondly because it’ll add colour, sound and depth to my blog.
part of the first day of the rest of our lives or the start of the end of the world?
Today (04/01/2012) saw the sentencing of Gary Dobson and David Norris for the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993.
The BBC website’s telling me quite coherently in the headline for the story that ‘Gary Dobson and David Norris get life’, but for some reason what they go on to say doesn’t quite compute (in a moral sense, not a legal one). Lines 4 - 6 then go on to state that, and I quote;
“Gary Dobson will serve a minimum of 15 years and two months, and David Norris 14 years and three months.”
Sorry what?
Now I’m lead to believe, but I’m not 100% certain, that the sentencing in this case is a bit untoward because of the age of the offenders when the crime took place, but nevertheless the sheer fact that a life sentence is anything less than exactly that, life, is astounding and I think it’s one of the main problems with the UK judicial system.
For some strange reason we seem to gift criminals with short sentences and early releases for ‘good behaviour’.
Being ‘well behaved’ in prison should not warrant an early release because they are still guilty of the crime they have committed. I’m not saying that prisoners can’t become reformed over the period of their sentence but it seems as if the view is taken that because someone is well behaved in prison that their slate is wiped clean and that they no longer have the immoral streak or criminal tenancies that they once did which I think it bullshit.
Because firstly, prisons almost by definition have a greater expected behaviour than that of common society; I imagine that if we had guards patrolling every street and manning every door that we walked through that we, as normal citizens, would be better behaved. So essentially, being well behaved in prison isn’t an accurate representation of how someone will subsequently behaviour on ‘the outside’. For that reason, an inmate’s behaviour should be looked at with some wariness and scepticism.
Secondly, no matter what you’ve been convicted of it is almost certainly more difficult to carry out the same act whilst you’re locked up. Someone who has stolen £100,000’s worth of jewellery in a robbery is definitely going to struggle to do it again whilst they’re in prison so it’s no wonder that they appear to be behaving more acceptably than they did on the outside. Which prison warden or review panel are looking at Mr.Smith’s file and having the following series of absurd thoughts:
“I see he robbed 3 separate jewellery shops in the 12 months before he arrived here, that’s disgraceful, he deserves his sentence…Oh wait, in the 6 months since he’s been here he hasn’t robbed a single jewellery store, this screams of reformation and I expect that because of this acceptable behaviour this man is surely never going to repeat sure an atrocity, he shall be released immediately.”
Shut the front door! That surely can’t be what goes through the head of such people yet perhaps it does because for some reason the man who is sentenced for non-violent theft is probably not going to see out the length of his sentence. But why shouldn’t he? By not stealing diamonds whilst he’s behind bars that doesn’t excuse what he’s done. Perhaps a fair way to sentence such a criminal is to work out the sale value/worth of the items he’s stolen then divide that by the average annual wage for a person in the UK to work out essentially how many years worth of wages he has ‘stolen’ and lock him away for that many years without the change of review or early release. Because if he could’ve earned £100,000 in 4 years but stupidly chose to try and earn it all in one day well then it only seems right that he spends his next 4 years of earning-potential time behind bars. That way the severity of each theft determines the sentence given to them; the sweet smell of freshly baked justice? Radical maybe, but whilst this country dishes out too short a sentence to too many, it is equally not fair that a person who has stolen £10,000 worth of goods is punished to the same extent as someone who has stolen £1,000,000 worth. Yes the basis of their crime, theft, is the same but the circumstances that exist within that crime are different and I think that this should be taken into account on a case to case basis but still with a certain level of objectivity.
Perhaps a different way to do it would be exactly like I just suggested except with an automatic base sentence for the crime of ‘theft’ no matter what the extent of the theft was. Let’s say, a 12 month standard sentence for any thief, then you add on my clause that I’ll call the Earnings Potential Principle (I’m assuming here such an exact method doesn’t exist by a different name) , so say 4 years at £25,000 a year (if that was the average at the time) for a £100,000 theft. So that’s 5 years so far. Then you just have to add-on the extras, so use of a weapon - extra 6 months, violence - 12 months etc etc. Before you know it, what went from being a quite substantial theft that an individual could serve only a small amount of time for due to ‘good behaviour’ becomes several years of their life gone.
The same should apply to every crime, we need harsher and more objective sentences to begin with and then have less room for leniency. The ‘good behaviour’ thing should be forgotten completely, get rid of it. Simply put, you should be allowed out of prison early if further evidence into the case proves your innocence and that’s it. So yes so a few innocent people will be wrongly convicted and end up spending considerably more time behind bars than they ever should have done but that’s surely very rare and gravely unfortunate for those individuals.
Life sentences on the other hand. Well, I think that a life sentence, as in America, should be exactly that, for life. If you get sentenced to life imprisonment you should go with the knowledge that you will almost certainly die there for your crime. However, I think that with the extension of the ‘life sentence’ the frequency at which they’re dished out should be reduced. So yes, by all means stick someone away for the rest of their life but the judicial system should also introduce say, the 30 year or 40 year sentence. So they should be prepared to sentence people to ‘the rest of the lives in prison’ but should also consider the use of higher, definitive sentences.
You put this knowledge into the minds of a nation and I’m almost certain that prospective criminals will think differently to, “oh it’s okay because if I get sentenced to 4 years I’ll be out in 18 months on good behaviour” - that should never be a thought or excuse that runs through anyone’s mind.
And on the Government’s part, the excuse “but there’s not enough room in the prisons for longer, harsher sentences” should never be uttered. Here’s a solution for you, don’t guarantee that a prisoner gets three meals a day and ‘yard time’, introduce a system whereby an inmate earns credits for what they receive. Yes they can have three meals but provide a better menu or choice of food for inmates who wish to use more credits on food. How do you earn credits? By going to classes, learning a trade and then applying it. Applying them to what? Well, teach them to build and get them to build prisons and then reward them for their work - that way, the prisoner is much more likely to want to learn and then work whilst in prison because it benefits them immediately and it solves the ‘crowded prison’ problem. Yes it’s alright giving them GCSEs if they haven’t got any so they can get jobs when they leave prison but by offering them the simple prospect of a steak for dinner one night a week opposed to whatever else it is they get, well, I can guarantee they’ll want those GCSEs more now than they did before. Of course these build projects would be adjudicated by and done alongside professionals to ensure no extremely elaborate, pre-emptive prison break/great escape style additions to the building such as tunnels and the like.
It’s got flaws, but they’re merely creases on the shirt that is “prison system reform” and they can easily be ironed out with a little proper planning.
There you have it, a problem with something in the UK, one of many.
And without wanting to write for too much longer (which I’m sure I could) there’s my brief (for lack of a better word) thoughts on it.
N x
