The people of Glasgow share their opinion on whether we’re spending too much on prisons

It costs an average of £50,000 to send someone to prison in the UK.

Transcript

00:00 I'd say it's the nation with regards to offenders.

00:02 I think one thing that really needs to be put into place

00:04 is the whole idea of rehabilitation.

00:06 Over here, a lot of it is just quite harsh with regards...

00:09 Well, not harsh, but, like, a lot of it is more focused

00:11 with regards to punishment rather than actual, like,

00:12 "Will you do this again? Yes or no?" sort of thing.

00:14 Criminal justice system shouldn't necessarily

00:17 just be about punishing people.

00:19 It's about rehabilitation, looking at the causes behind crime.

00:24 A lot of the money we spend on crime,

00:26 we could look at the causes of crime

00:28 and that way kind of reduce the cost.

00:31 If the money's been used right and, you know,

00:34 on rehabilitation and whatnot, but I'm not quite sure.

00:37 I couldn't really say, to be honest, what's best there.

00:41 I wouldn't be surprised if most people who go into prison are...

00:43 Actually, a lot of them are worse off

00:45 because of the environment they're in.

00:47 But for a way to solve that, I have no idea.

00:49 I think it probably should be taken more case by case

00:52 and a broad generalisation for people who've committed crimes.

00:55 Probably more... Maybe more counselling and things like that,

00:57 I'd imagine.