Theodore Dalrymple

Let’s abolish parole

Offenders should be locked up for what they have done, not for what they might do

issue 20 January 2018

The furore over the parole granted to John Worboys, the rapist taxi driver, misses the point entirely — that the system of parole is disgraceful in theory and irredeemably unwork-able in practice. The only thing that it is good for is the employment of large numbers of officials engaged in pointless or fatuous tasks who might other-wise be unemployed.

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